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SEVEN SERMONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE LORD'S DAY. 
 
J 
 
THE 
 DIVINE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUAL OBLIGATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LORD'S DAY, 
 
 ASSERTED IN 
 
 SEVEN SERMONS, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY, 
 ISLINGTON, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1830. 
 
 / BY 
 
 DANIEL WILSON, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1840. 
 
J 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY IBOTSON AND PALMER, SAVOY J-TREKT. 
 
,J^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The substance of the following Sermons was deli- 
 vered in the autumn of 1827. They were then three 
 in number ; but though requested to print them, I was 
 compelled to decline the invitation from the pressure 
 of other duties. A new and more favourable occasion 
 of treating the question occurred in the spring of 1830. 
 The 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 atten- 
 tion was awakened. I was induced to examine the whole 
 subject anew and more thoroughly than I had previously 
 done. It grew upon my mind. I discerned more and 
 more its immense importance, if we would honour God, 
 preserve religion in the world, or save our own souls, and 
 those of our family and neighbourhood. I discovered 
 also, as I thought, the sources of the more current objec- 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 tions ; and at the same time their fallacy, when once the 
 whole bearing of the argument from Scripture was under- 
 stood. Thus I was led on to treat the question in detail, 
 and delivered seven discourses, which I committed to 
 the press in the last winter. I have consulted our chief 
 writers ; weighed again and again the difficulties which 
 are alleged : and I hope 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 pri- 
 vate worship. I hope I have succeeded in showing that 
 this appointment was essentially moral and immutable 
 in its obligation, though, from the nature of the case, the 
 determination of the exact proportion of time may be 
 considered as a positive institution, that is, as resting 
 on the mere revelation of the will of God concerning it. 
 I hope I have succeeded in showing, that our Lord never 
 relaxed, nor meant to relax, the law of creation or of the 
 fourth commandment, but only to vindicate them from 
 the false comments of the Jewish doctors, and then leave 
 them in their original dignity and force. I hope I have 
 succeeded in showing, that the day of the observation 
 of the Sabbath, under the gospel, was authoritatively 
 changed by our Lord and his apostles, to honour the re- 
 surrection ; and was in entire consistence with the origi- 
 nal bearing of the institution,"and the subsequent mani- 
 festation of the divine will concerning it. _J 
 
 I was for some time doubtful, whether the argumenta- 
 tive air of the first four sermons, in which these points 
 are established, was likely to be generally useful. I thought 
 that perhaps the devout inculcation of the practical duties 
 of the Lord's day was the safer course. And indeed, in 
 general, this is our best wisdom : not one in a thousand 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 of our population ever heard of any objections. Crea- 
 tion — the fourth commandment — the exhortation of the 
 prophets — the conduct and doctrine of our Saviour and 
 his apostles — the practice of the whole Christian church 
 — a sense of gratitude for the spiritual blessings con- 
 veyed by it — the obvious state and wants of man — the 
 pledge and hope of an eternal Sabbath in heaven, — are 
 plain, common-sense arguments to every pious mind, 
 involving matters of fact, which no plausible theories 
 can overthrow. 
 
 But, on further reflection, I conceived that a dis- 
 cussion of the main objections might not be unimpor- 
 tant in a day like the present. We live in a reading 
 age. The temper of the times inclines rather to intel- 
 lectual pride, than to the sober exercise of the under- 
 standing in the obedience of faith. Men catch at any 
 thing, to escape from the sacred obligations of a day de- 
 voted to spiritual 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 publi- 
 cations 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 unin- 
 formed. Open infidelity, semi-scepticism, profaneness, 
 worldly-mindedness, unconcern for the soul, and a readi- 
 ness to follow what is new and daring, all lean the same 
 way. It seemed to me, therefore, to be the duty of those 
 who adhere to the doctrine of the Bible, and the univer- 
 sal faith of the church, to come forward and enter their 
 protest against the gigantic evil. This I have endea- 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 voured to do. I have interwoven, however, with the 
 argumentative sermons, practical exhortations ; and 
 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, most of them are 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, indeed, been disputed ; 
 but the great truth that a day of religious exercise and 
 holy rest, after six days' work, is of divine authority and 
 perpetual obligation upon man, has been acknowledged 
 through all the periods of the Christian church, and in 
 all the subdivisions of it. 
 
 The best single sermons I have met with, in a prac- 
 tical point of view, are those of Dean Milner, Arch- 
 deacon 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, the 
 Exercitations of Dr. John Owen. The change from 
 the last to the first day of the week is thoroughly de- 
 fended, 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 admirable work — full of learning, the soundest 
 judgment, and rich knowledge of the materials of his ar- 
 gument. Mr. Holden has, in his recent volume, ar- 
 ranged most of the reasonings and conclusions of pre- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 ceding writers : he gives a list of nearly one hundred 
 and fifty, and has furnished a valuable compendium. 
 The chief authors of any popularity, 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 — 
 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, 
 redeems the fault, by a bold and masterly defence of 
 the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath. Bax- 
 ter confivies 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 Stilling- 
 fleet 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 Bishop Horsley has 
 three noble sermons on the subject, in which he power- 
 fully maintains the same doctrine. I think he errs in 
 considering the Sabbath an appointment more of a po- 
 sitive than moral character. Indeed, if I am not de- 
 ceived in my judgment, this error pervades almost all 
 our writers, to the treatises of J. Edwards and Hey. 
 They too much concede that the fourth commandment 
 is of a positive nature — not resting on the moral nature 
 
 b 3 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 of man and the fitness of things, but reposing merely, as 
 other external or ceremonial observances, on the will of 
 God. That there is, as I have said, something positive 
 in it, may be granted — from the nature of the case it 
 could not well do otherwise ; but the positive part is as 
 little as possible — so little, that the grand duty of de- 
 voting some portion of time to the immediate service 
 of God is its main purport — the commandment is moral 
 per se — arises from the fitness 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 favour of the divine obligation of the Lord's 
 day — Cranmer, Latimer, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, 
 Beza, maintain it with one voice, though sometimes, es- 
 pecially at the early period of the Reformation, they 
 support certain festival days in common with it. 
 
 To refer to the authors where references to the ques- 
 tion, or brief discussions occur, would be endless. Light- 
 foot, Watts, Doddridge, Walker of Truro, Scott, and 
 most practical writers, have something valuable. 1 have 
 found interesting papers in the 8th volume of the British 
 Review, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the Eclec- 
 tic Review of the last year. The Bishop of Down and 
 Connor, Dr. Mant, has also recently published an excel- 
 lent 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. Divight. 
 This last name deserves especial notice — Dr. Dwight, 
 as well as his illustrious countryman, Edwards, has 
 honoured the American School of Theology — rapidly 
 increasing in importance — with a most convincing and 
 able discussion of the question in all its branches, both 
 theoretical and practical : this perhaps forms the best 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 of our modern treatises ; though it would be unjust to 
 Dr. Humphrey, of Amherst College, to withhold a tri- 
 bute of applause from his excellent Essays. But I will 
 not proceed. I have said so much, to show that I have 
 not been inattentive to the opinions of others — and 
 likewise to suggest a course of reading to any who may 
 have time for such an inquiry. 
 
 The points upon which I hope I may have cast some 
 new light, are — The reasons for believing the Mosaic 
 narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise 
 to be real — The direct moral character of the fourth 
 commandment — The importance and dignity given to 
 the Sabbath even during the vigour of the Mosaic eco- 
 nomy — The real bearing of our Lord's conduct and 
 doctrine — And the way in which the change of the day 
 was introduced by Christ and his apostles. 
 
 And this leads me to notice the authority of re- 
 vealed TRUTH as connected with this subject, and 
 forming its only true support. For it is on this footing 
 I place the doctrine of the Lord's day — it is a part of 
 God's merciful revelation of his will to man. I make 
 no compromise in the course of these Sermons. I trust 
 I am cautious on topics not essential to the great truth 
 itself: but on the main duty I dare not, cannot, do not 
 hesitate to speak my mind. I know it is the opinion 
 of many excellent persons, that whilst we yield not 
 the question of the divine obligation in point of argu- 
 ment, we may yet better urge its practical duties on the 
 ground of expediency. My own opinion is, that 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 warm the heart. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 Expediency may carrj'^ 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 recrea- 
 tions, the Sunday Newspapers, the Sunday parties, the 
 Sunday dinners, the Sunday journeys, the general Sun- 
 day secularities. Expediency may conceal or control 
 some outward enormities, but it cannot implant princi- 
 ples of" religion, it cannot inspire love to God, it cannot 
 check weariness and inattention, it cannot animate to 
 prayer, it cannot change the human heart. 
 
 To do this we must invoke the power of the supreme 
 Potentate, 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- We must admit duly the authority 
 OF REVEALED TRUTH in rcspcct of this duty, as well as 
 every other, in order to have any influence of grace 
 upon the soul of man, or even any permanent authority 
 over his conscience. 
 
 I rejoice to observe that during the eight months 
 which have elapsed since the publication of the first 
 edition, considerable attention has been awakened on 
 the subject. Several publications have appeared both 
 in America and England. And, what is more import- 
 ant. Societies have been formed for promoting the 
 better observance of the Lord's day. That in London 
 proceeds boldly on the Divine authority of the Insti- 
 tution, and promises a series of measures which, with 
 the Divine blessing, may have the most important 
 results.^ 
 
 I am more and more convinced that the Lord's day 
 
 ' Its office is Exeter Hall, London — its title, " London Society 
 for Promoting a due Observance of the Lord's day." 
 
PREFACE. XHl 
 
 is one of the grandest practical topics which we are 
 now called to treat. It is the platform, and, as it were, 
 the machinery for the whole application of Christianity. 
 The Holy Sabbath — coeval with man— the example of 
 the Almighty proposing it to him — creation so dis- 
 tributed as to lay a foundation for it— the powers and 
 faculties of rational and irrational creatures formed 
 upon the supposition of it — the proportion of one day's 
 rest to six of labour infixed in the order of this beauti- 
 ful world by the Almighty Artificer — the institution 
 goes along with redemption, marks the season with re- 
 ligious worship, affords the leisure, sets to rest the 
 ministrations, collects all the materials for the diffusion 
 of the gospel 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. 
 
 The opposition made to every attempt for recovering 
 its honour should create no surprise. The conflict 
 between good and evil may probably be censured very 
 much here. There seems a tremendous shock ap- 
 proaching. Infidelity, indifference, worldliness, pride, 
 contempt of religion on the one hand, are drawn up in 
 array against the comparatively small number of pious, 
 devoted, holy servants of God on the other. But let 
 us not fear. Let us be firm in the faith of our blessed 
 Lord and Master. He is able to defend his own cause, 
 and us also, so far as we humbly aim at promoting it. 
 Only let the purity and simplicity of truth remain with 
 'us — only let our spirit and conversation be as be- 
 cometh the gospel of Christ — only let us keep on 
 broad and acknowledged ground— only let us discounte- 
 nance novelties and over-statements, and dispropor- 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 tionate zeal for doubtful and subordinate points — and 
 God will help us — he will arm us against all our spi- 
 ritual foes, and will, perhaps^ grant us to see a revival of 
 sound, evangelical, practical religion, in a degree of 
 which we have little conception. 
 
 Islington^ Sept. 9, 
 1831. 
 
 J 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface . . . • . Fage v. — xiii. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 Genesis ii. 1 — 3. — Page 1. 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF THE WEEKLY SABBATH IN 
 PARADISE, AND ITS CONTINUED AUTHORITY, 
 UNTIL THE DELIVERY OF THE MORAL LAW. 
 
 The importance of the subject .... 1 
 
 The plan of the work announced . . . .4 
 
 The DIRECT REASONS for believing the Sabbath to have been 
 
 instituted at the time when the sacred narrative begins . 7 
 The JUST INFERENCES to be drawn from them . . .11 
 
 Traces of the observation of a weekly rest, during the pa- 
 triarchal AGES . . . . .13 
 The MANNER in Avhich the Sabbath was revived before the 
 
 commencement of the MosAiCAL ECONOMY . . 19 
 
 The EXTREME VIOLENCE doue to the Christian faith, by the 
 attempt to explain away the institution of the Sabbath in 
 Paradise .,•... 21 
 
 The duty of adoring the almighty father op all, for the 
 DISTINCT glories shed upon the day of religious repose . 22 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Exodus XX. 8 — 11. — Page 25. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY AND DIGNITY OF THE SABBATH 
 UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES. 
 
 The INSERTION OF THE LAW OP THE SABBATH illto the DECA- 
 LOGUE . . .... 26 
 
 The Sabbath appeared high and distinct above all the 
 CEREMONIAL USAGES during the Mosaic Economy . 32 
 
 The Sabbath was insisted upon by the prophets, as of es- 
 sential MORAL OBLIGATION, and aS destined TO FORM A 
 PART OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION . . .37 
 
 The duty of giving to the holy day of rest that prominency 
 IN OUR ESTEEM, which Moscs was instructed to give it in 
 his dispensation . . . • . .48 
 
 Of imbibing the spirit of love and delight in the worship 
 of God, which the psalms and prophets display . . 48 
 
 The AWFUL indignation of Almighty God against the con- 
 tempt of his name and his day ... 49 
 
 Let us imitate the heroic zeal of Ezra and Nehemiah, in 
 vindicating the sanctity of the Sabbath . . .50 
 
 Let us di'ead the false view of the character of God, and of 
 the nature of Christianity, which is associated with the vio- 
 lation' of the Lord's day . . . . . 51 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Mark ii. 27, 2%.— Page 53. 
 
 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 ...... 5() 
 
CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 Our Lord honoured the Sabbath on all occasions, and 
 liever violated its sanctity . . . .60 
 
 Nothing is abrogated under the christian dispensation, 
 WITH RESPECT TO THE Sabbath, biit those temporary and 
 figurative enactments which constituted the peculiarities of 
 the Jewish age ..... 70 
 
 The DISTINGUISHING PROMISE of the New Testament has for 
 its object, to render the duties of the Sabbath more de- 
 lightful, and thus increases tenfold their obligation . 74 
 
 Let every one yield to these accumulated proofs . . 78 
 
 Let every one shun the ingratitude of making use of the 
 compassion of our Saviour to the tacit disparagement of the 
 Sabbath itself . . . . . .80 
 
 We plead for the christian sabbath, for which the Holy 
 Spirit is especially given . . . . 81 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Revelation i. 10. — Page 83. 
 
 THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED BY DIVINE AUTHO- 
 RITY 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 .... 84 
 
 1 . The prominence given to the proportion of time, both at 
 the first institution in Paradise, and in the wording of the 
 fourth commandment ..... 84 
 
 2. The probability that the computation of time was lost in 
 
 the bondage of Egypt .... 86 
 
 3. The freedom aud universality of the gospel dipensation . 88 
 
 4. The intimations of prophecy . . .90 
 
 5. The complete revolution which actually took place in the 
 whole state of the church . . .91 
 
 6. The claims which Christ advanced during his ministry, of 
 legislating for the Sabbath, as its Sovereign and Lord . 95 
 
XVIU CONTENTS. 
 
 The manner in which the changes of the Sabbath from 
 THE last to the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, was gradually 
 introduced bj the divine authority of our Lord and his 
 apostles . . • . . 97 
 
 1. Our Saviour, after his passion, began to introduce the ac- v 
 tual change tacitly and gently, by his own divine conduct 
 
 on his resurrection . . . .99' 
 
 2. The first day is marked by the gift of the great promise of 
 the whole dispensation . . . 101 
 
 3. The doctrine and conduct of the apostles bring in more de- 
 cidedly the new day of the Sabbath . . . 1 02 
 
 4. The events of God's wonderful providence completed the 
 change ..... 105 
 
 5. Ecclesiastical historians bear witness to the observation of 
 the first day .... 08 
 
 6. A perpetual blessing has attended, and now attends, the 
 Christian Sabbath . . . .111 
 
 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 . . 112 
 
 Adore the wisdom and goodness of God in providing for 
 man's religious repose in his first creation . . 113 
 
 The CHANGES in the circumstances of the law of the Sabbath 
 have sprung up from new benefits conferred on man 114 
 
 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 . . . . 116 
 
 SERMON V. ^ 
 
 Ezekiel xx. 12. — Page 118. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SABBATH. 
 
 Keep ever in view the great end of the institution . 121 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 The public and private duties of the Sabbath . 126 
 
 We must cany the true spirit of the Christian dispen- 
 sation into these duties . . . 133 
 caution as to tenderness to children and servants in en- 
 forcing these duties . ... 137 
 We must glorify God for those mighty blessings which are 
 
 appointed to be commemorated on the lord's day . ^138 
 Topics op humiliation arising from the discussion . 141 
 
 The conviction which such a discussion should fix in the 
 minds of the religious and unconverted . 142 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 Isaiah Iviii. 1, 2. — Page 145. 
 
 THE UNSPEAKABLE IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT 
 OBSERVATION 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 . . . . .147 
 
 The observation of the Sabbath bears upon man's temporal 
 and spiritual welfare as a fallen but accountable 
 creature . . . . . 149 
 
 It includes, in fact, all the application of the christian 
 religion and its preservation in the world . 153 
 
 The Lord's day connects and holds together all the links 
 and obligations of human society, which the violation 
 of it tends to destroy . . . 159 
 
 The observation of the Sabbath honours almighty god, and 
 brings his favour and blessings upon a people ; whilst 
 the profanation of it provokes his highest displeasure . 162 
 
 The EXCUSES which men allege in extenuation of a neglect 
 of the day of God . . . .164 
 
 Let us ENTER FULLY AND DETERMINATELY OU the religioUS 
 
 duty of honouring God . . . 167 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON y\l.—Page 169. 
 
 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 Rgailist the BRITISH NATION SUBSTAN- 
 TIATED . . . . . . 170 
 
 The NATIONAL JUDGMENT which we may too certainly dread 178 
 The PRACTICAL MEASURES which each one may adopt to pro- 
 mote a national repentance and return to God . 82 
 
 We have pleaded for the Sabbath because it is a means to 
 
 CERTAIN ENDS . . . . . 188 
 
 Because of the unspeakable value of the soul of man . 189 
 Because it appeals to the human conscience . . 1 90 
 
 Because it is an indispensable preparation for the hea- 
 venly blessedness . . . . .191 
 
 J 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON I 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF A WEEKLY SABBATH IN 
 PARADISE, 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 lohich he had made ; and he rested on the seventh 
 day from all his ivork which he had made. And God 
 blessed the seventh day and sanctified it ; because that 
 in it he had rested from all his work which God 
 created and made. 
 
 The glory of God is peculiarly concerned in the due 
 observance of the Sabbath. It is the day which he is 
 pleased to call his own, and with which he has con- 
 nected most of the practical blessings of salvation. The 
 Lord's day is one main distinction of the gospel dis- 
 pensation, as the Jewish Sabbath was of the Mosaical, 
 and the Patriarchal Sabbath of the first revelation of the 
 divine will to Adam. The profanation of this day tends 
 
 B 
 
2 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 to annihilate the blessings of revelation, to leave the 
 world without any visible token of the authority of 
 Christianity, and to strip the church of the means of 
 openly testifying its faith and obedience. As to the mass 
 of mankind, if the Sabbath be taken away from them, no 
 time is left for religious duties, for the worship of Almighty 
 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 pre- 
 paration for that rest of heaven of which it is the pledge 
 and foretaste. And the remaining classes of society would 
 never allot a time for those duties, which, if there were 
 no Sabbath, would be left open ; nor could they sustain 
 the honour of religion in their families or the world. 
 
 Christianity is indeed represented and set forth in the 
 weekl}^ return of the day, when its most solemn services 
 are performed. As real piety declines in any country, 
 this symbol of it is forgotten or contemned ; as Chris- 
 tianity revives, 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 
 miiversal church has agreed. Its institution in paradise, 
 and its insertion in the moral law, have given it an au- 
 thority on the consciences of men which nothing has 
 shaken. Christian states have hitherto recognised it, 
 and protected their subjects in the peaceable enjoyment 
 of its repose. The disputes of controversialists have 
 chiefly affected subordinate questions, and have left 
 the divine authority undisturbed as an article of the 
 general faith of Christendom. The neglect ofjjts prac- 
 tical 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 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 3 
 
 call in question that sacred season when all those doc- 
 trines and mysteries are publicly recognised and incul- 
 cated. The platform and arena of religion is taken from 
 under our feet — the great external distinction 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 Christianity and celebrate its 
 rites, as chance may dictate and expediency persuade. 
 And though most of the opponents of the divine autho- 
 rity of the Sabbath are ready at present to allow its 
 importance, and are loud in their admiration of those 
 public services which custom and the laws of Christian 
 nations enjoin, yet the tendency of their writings is to 
 sap the principle on which all this rests, to take men 
 off from the firm footing of conscience and the com- 
 mand of God, and transfer them to the sandy ground 
 of human recommendation and casual example. 
 
 The duty of the minister of the gospel, under such 
 circumstances, 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 inquiry. 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 recall the intelligent and elevated 
 classes from the fatal course on which they are in 
 danger of entering. 
 
 And in honestly attempting this, he may look for the 
 blessing of Almighty God, who only permits his truth 
 to be assailed 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 proba- 
 tion and discipline which he has been pleased to establish 
 in this world, and which is apparent, not in this ques- 
 tion only, but in every other connected with the evi- 
 dences, the doctrines, and the precepts of Christianity. 
 God has indeed left things so in the Bible, that his 
 will is plain to the humble inquirer, but obscure and 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I, 
 
 difficult to the proud — that there is darkness enough 
 on secondary matters and points not connected with 
 our immediate duty, to be the occasion of excuse to 
 the unwilhng; whilst there is sufficient light to guide 
 the sincere and docile.^ 
 
 For it is to practice that the doctrine of revelation 
 on this subject, as well as every other, tends. The day 
 of rest, not in its theory, or even its divine obligation, 
 but in its holy duties and in its peculiar blessings, is 
 the object which it has in view. And to this we shall 
 direct all our attention, so soon as we have cleared our 
 way through those arguments which are necessary as 
 an introduction to practical exhortation. In this re- 
 spect it is that the theory and doctrine of the Sabbath, 
 its divine authority 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, divides itself into two parts 
 — THE DIVINE AUTHORITY of a day of weekly religious 
 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 
 foundation on which the dutj^ rests, that is, the grounds 
 we have for believing that a seventh portion of our time, 
 now termed the Lord's Day and formerly 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 Clji'istian 
 Sabbath, the unspeakable importance of observing 
 tl-em, the evils of the opposite neglect, and the neces- 
 sity of personal and national repentance, if we would 
 avert the Divine displeasure. 
 
 We enter, then, now on the first general branch of the 
 
 ' Butler's Analogj'^ of Natural and Kevealed Religion. 
 
 2 Serauons I. II. III. IV. ^ Sermons V. VI. VII. 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 5 
 
 whole question. Here the points which decidedly esta- 
 blish the divine authority and perpetual force of a weekly 
 day of rest, are ; 1. The institution of it in Paradise; 
 2. Its solemn insertion in the decalogue ; 3. The posi- 
 tion it holds under the Mosaic law ; 4. the enerijy with 
 which the prophets insist upon it as one of the primary 
 and universal obligations of religion ; 5. The transfer 
 of it to the Lord's Day by the apostles, who were di- 
 vinely directed to found the Christian faith, and its ob- 
 servances as such, by all the primitive Christian 
 churches which were immediately instructed by them. 
 
 The chief difficulties which our adversaries oppose to 
 these arguments, are ; 1 . That there are no vestiges, as 
 they assert, of the observance of a Sabbath in the pa- 
 triarchal ages — that therefore the narrative of its insti- 
 tution in the book of Genesis is by anticipation ; 2. 
 That it was not established, in fact, till the time of the 
 ceremonial law, and then merely formed a part of that 
 preparatory economy ; 3. That we have no express 
 command for the observation of it, or of any day in 
 lieu of it, in the New Testament ; 4. That our Lord re- 
 pealed it by his doctrine and conduct, of which the 
 change of the time of its celebration is, as they main- 
 tain, a sufficient proof; and that, finally, 5. The exam- 
 ple of the apostles and the primitive Christians gives it 
 only the force of a moral expediency, subject to the re- 
 gulations of the Christian church, in each following age. 
 
 Such is the state of the question. I. Our opponents 
 proceed on the silence of Scripture during the patriar- 
 chal ages : this we shall show to be an unsound argu- 
 ment ; and shall prove that the Sabbath was instituted 
 in Paradise, and revived and re-established in the wilder- 
 ness.i 2. Our opponents insist that it is a ceremonial 
 appointment appended to the Mosaic dispensation : we 
 shall show that it was inserted in the immutable law of 
 the ten commandments before that dispensation began; 
 that it was exalted during the course of the Mosaic eco- 
 nomy above all merely typical institutions, and was en- 
 
 » Serm. I. 
 
6 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 forced by the prophets as of universal obligation.^ 3. 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 
 Saviour honoured it on all occasions, only vindicating it 
 from uncommanded austerities.- 4. Our opponents con- 
 sider the change of the day as a proof of its abrogation : 
 we shall maintain, that this was in itself a subordinate 
 point ; and took place upon the authority of the Lord 
 of the Sabbath. 5. Finally, the example of the apostles 
 is reduced by our adversaries to a mere commendation 
 of the observance : we shall show it to have a divine obli- 
 gation derived from the inspiration under which they 
 acted.3 
 
 These topics will occupy four sermons. 
 
 We shall in the present discourse confine ourselves to 
 
 THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION 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 labour, and the seventh 
 exclusively 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-tfssential 
 and moral character. The whole controversy hinges 
 here ; for 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 
 
 ^ Sermon II. ^ Sermon III. ^ Sermon IV. 
 
 * The opinion of the venerable translators of the English Bible 
 is manifest, by the above title being given in the contents of the 
 second chapter of Genesis. 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 7 
 
 that SO express a narrative was merely inserted in the 
 chapter in which it is found, 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 unaccount- 
 able perversions for which the corruption of man's fallen 
 nature can alone account. The notion of an anticipated 
 history seems first to have been broached by some Jewish 
 doctors, in their zeal to magnify the Mosaical ritual.^ 
 Their followers in modern times" have only repeated 
 the Jewish quibbles. 
 
 It will be proper, however, to proceed in order. Let 
 us show, — I. The direct reasons for believing the Sab- 
 bath to have been instituted at the time when the sacred 
 narrative declares. II. That these are not weakened 
 by the silence of scripture during the patriarchal ages. 
 III. And are fully confirmed by the manner in which 
 the Sabbath was revived in the wilderness. 
 
 t. The DIRECT REASONS are these. The history of 
 the creation is chronological, unbroken, complete. The 
 transactions of the seventh day immediately follow those 
 of the sixth, precisely as those of the sixth follow the 
 fifth. Each day's work comes in order. This is the 
 plain reason for believing the Sabbath was instituted in 
 paradise. 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 elements ; and on the 
 sixth the terrestrial animals, and man, the lord of the 
 lower creation, were made : so on the seventh God "ended 
 his work" — "rested from all his work" — 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 those of any 
 
 ' Dr. John Owen, Exercitations on the Sabbath. 
 ^ Archbishop Bramhall was the chief supporter of this notion 
 in the century before last, and Dr. Paley in later times. 
 
8 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 of the Other days. It is a monstrous presumption, then, 
 to transfer an event thus recorded in a regular series of 
 transactions, to a period two thousand five hundred years 
 after, merely because we think subsequent notices of its 
 observation ought to occur in the history of the patri- 
 archs. We might as well break asunder the links of the 
 history, at any other period, as at this. We might as 
 well suppose that the heavens and the earth were not 
 created, on the days which the sacred history records. 
 W^e might as well imagine that the sun and moon did 
 not begin to shine as soon as they were made. If the 
 Sabbath was not granted to man at the time which is as- 
 signed to it, all is thrown into uncertainty. The whole 
 foundation of faith is overturned by such a process. 
 
 If in a plain historical narrative, and especially of 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 
 indispensable 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 labour, 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. Takeaway the 
 first Sabbath, and all is left incomplete and detrimcated 
 — the object in which it terminates is wanting. 
 
 Again, where is the example in Scripture of any 
 instituted commemoration not beginning from the time 
 of its appointment ? Did the passover wait two thou- 
 sand years before it was celebrated, after the deliver- 
 ance which it was designed to commemorate ? Did 
 circumcision under the Old Testament, or baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper under the New, remain in abeyance 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 9 
 
 for centuries before they were acted upon ? And shali 
 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 appointed had taken place ? 
 And especially as the reason for the celebration existed 
 from the beginning, related to the whole race of man- 
 kind as well as to the Jews, and became more and more 
 cogent in the following ages, as sin marred the Al- 
 mighty's work, and idolatry prevailed in the world. 
 
 One is ashamed to urge more arguments in such a 
 case. But I must call your attention to the quotation 
 of this history of the institution of the Sabbath, in the 
 fourth commandment, where the fact is referred to as 
 well known, and is made the reason of the whole sta- 
 tute. " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" — 
 "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the 
 sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; 
 wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hal- 
 lowed it" — where it is to be noted, that the words are 
 not, " the Lord blesses and hallows ;" or, " will ble^s 
 and hallow ;" but, " wherefore the Lord blessed the 
 Sabbath day, and hallowed it," that is, at the time 
 that " he rested" from his work of creation. The 
 whole narrative is repeated, as if to remove all reason- 
 able doubt. Add to this the language of the apostle 
 in his Epistle to the Hebrews, where he takes for 
 granted that the original rest of the Sabbath began when 
 " the works were finished from the creation of the 
 world." 1 Thus we have the strongest moral certainty 
 that the narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in 
 paradise^ is and must be literally interpreted. 
 
 • Heb. iv. iii. 
 
 2 The opinion of the Refonners on this subject is uniform 
 Luther says, " If Adam had continued in innocency, yet he. 
 would have had a sacred seventh day." Calvin, " God there- 
 fore first rested and then blessed this rest, that it might be sa- 
 cred in all ages amongst men ; he dedicated every seventh day 
 to rest, that his own example might be a perpetual rule. — When 
 Ave are told that Christ abolishes the Sabbath, a distinction must 
 be made between the figures of the old law and that which re- 
 
 B 5 
 
10 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 But it is further objected, that, ' allowing this ac- 
 count to be in its natural place, it contains no enact- 
 ment of a Sabbath — it states merely that God blessed 
 and hallowed the seventh day, but for what purposes 
 it does not affirm.' 
 
 But we ask in reply, what is the meaning of the word 
 sanctify, when applied to a portion of our time — for 
 whose use did the Almighty bless and hallow the 
 seventh day — what is the meaning of God's saying 
 that he " rested and was refreshed after the six days' 
 work" — what instruction do we derive from the division 
 of creation into six portions, followed by a seventh of 
 repose ? Were not all these done for the sake of man, 
 the reasonable, intelligent creature of the great Artifi- 
 cer ? 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 rest- 
 ing the seventh, were clearly designed to be of general 
 and universal use in determining the proportion of time 
 to be severally devoted to human and divine duties — 
 by them the conduct of mankind was to be regulated — 
 by them God intended to teach man that he should, 
 after his Maker's example, work six days, and then rest 
 and hallow the next following — that he should sanctify 
 every seventh day — that the space between rest and 
 rest, between one hallowed time and another, among his 
 creatures here upon earth, should be six days.^ And 
 indeed there is no other sense in which the word " sanc- 
 tified" 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^aberna- 
 
 lates to the perpetual regulation of our lives. — What refers to the 
 command given to man from the beginning to consecrate the da}' 
 to the worship of God, continues in force to the end of the 
 world." Beza says, that " the day of the Sabbath continued 
 from the 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. 
 ^ J. Edwards. 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 11 
 
 cle, the furniture, the days of fasting and penitencej &c. 
 were declared to be sanctified, when they were sepa- 
 rated from common employments, and set apart for the 
 especial service of God. This is the uniform import of 
 the term. 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 annexed 
 the promise of his special blessing to the discharge of 
 its duties. It can mean nothing else ; common sense 
 requires it. 
 
 And this meaning is rendered certain by the exposi- 
 tion of our text in the fourth commandment, where the 
 minute injunctions with regard to the Sabbath expressly 
 repose upon the words before us, which it cites and ex- 
 plains. The fourth commandment is nothing more than 
 the terms of the first institution enlarged. 
 
 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 one person in a million of those who read 
 the sacred narrative, would ever dream that it was an 
 anticipated history, or that it did not imply a most de- 
 cisive command to keep holy the day of rest. 
 
 Here, then, we fix our foot. Now let us pause, and 
 draw from these facts some of the just inferences 
 which arise 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 inno- 
 cence, his all-wise Creator saw it necessary to call him 
 off from even the moderate and gentle labour of dress- 
 ing and keeping the garden, to the immediate contem- 
 plations and exercises 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 ex- 
 cessive toil— and yet the Sabbath was necessary for 
 him. Judge from this of itsessential moral character. 
 Judge from this how indispensable it is to fallen man, 
 
12 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 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 superin- 
 duced. 
 
 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 Sab- 
 bath. The moment there was a creature formed capa- 
 ble 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 rela- 
 tion of a creature with his glorious 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 CREA- 
 TION ITSELF. By the Almighty hand all nature might 
 have been called into being in an instant. The distri- 
 bution of the work over six days, followed by the repose 
 on the seventh, was to infix this grand principle in the 
 mind of every human being', that after six days' labour, 
 one day of religious rest should follow. God worked 
 in a certain order, that man might work in the same ; 
 God rested at a certain time, that man might rest like- 
 wise. In this glorious manner is the law of the Sab- 
 bath graphically set forth ; this is the distinction which 
 crowns the Queen of days. We have already noticed 
 the proof this furnishes of the Sabbath having been in- 
 stituted at the time assigned in the sacred story ; but we 
 now deduce from it the importance and dignity of the ap- 
 pointment itself. It is an appointment not writtenjbereiy 
 by inspired men, not merely graven on tables of stone, 
 not indented in " lead on the rock for ever," not uttered 
 in the first instance from the summitof the mount by the 
 voice of the Almighty and amidst the thunders and terrors 
 of Sinai — but infixed in the creative order of the uni- 
 verse, 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, 
 
SERM. I,] IN PARADISE. 13 
 
 promulgated with the majesty of the example of the great 
 Lord of all — and therefore requiring no subsequent 
 ENACTMENTS, except to incorporate it with the various 
 dispensations of religion, and revive it when forgotten, 
 that it may go on and accompany man so long as he 
 continues 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 labour with 
 
 INTERVALS OF 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 pursuits merely, but for the high purpose 
 of honouring God, meditating on his works, and prepar- 
 ing for the enjoyment of him for ever. The essential na- 
 ture of the institution obviously lies in the proportion of 
 time fixed by his beneficent and all-wise Creator — for his 
 body six days' labour, for his soul one day of religious 
 rest : and this corresponds with hU compound nature — 
 his intellectual and moral part calling him up to the ex- 
 alted and delightful offices of religion, and his bodily and 
 animal part requiring recreation and repose. The Sab- 
 bath is the spiritual badge and charter 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 com- 
 mand was actually delivered at the creation, it was " no 
 doubt addressed to the whole human species alike, 
 and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent re- 
 velation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge 
 of it."3 
 
 II. Let us next show, that these argun^ents are not 
 WEAKENED BY THE SILENCE of Scripturc during the pa- 
 triarchal ages. For it is upon this assumption 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 
 
 1 Palej. 
 
14 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH. [SERM. I. 
 
 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 details given us of the lives of Abraham 
 and Jacob are without any direct declaration on the sub- 
 ject. That there are allusions and vestiges we shall pre- 
 sently show. But we admit the difficulty so far as the 
 objection is founded. But what does this 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 of mankind 
 after the fall, prove that no such law had been enacted 
 at the creation ? The original law of marriage was lost 
 during a much longer period, but was it the less re-as- 
 serted by our Saviour, as the primary and binding ap- 
 pointment of the Almighty ? But we admit not that 
 the observation of the Sabbath was wholly forgotten dur- 
 ing this period. The objection can at most only rest on 
 the SILENCE of Scripture. Now to argue from that si- 
 lence, after an express institution, is most unfair and 
 most injurious to the interests of revelation. An objec- 
 tion derived from things not being expressly mentioned 
 so often as we might please to expect, is wholly inconclu- 
 sive. 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 Beersheba^ till the deliver- 
 ance 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 centuries ; 
 but does any one imagine that circumcision was n^t per- 
 formed ? No mention of the Sabbath occurs in the his- 
 tories of the books of Joshua, Ruth, first and second Sa- 
 muel, 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 vigour. The ordinance of the red heifer, again, is 
 
 ' Gen. xlvi. 1 . 
 
SERM. I.] Ix\ PARADISE. 15 
 
 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 ex- 
 pressly mentioned, except when the neglect of it pro- 
 voked 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 
 Almighty 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 in- 
 stituted in the most solemn 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 of Abraham, and the other patriarchs ; though the 
 celebration of it is not expressly recorded. It is thus 
 we deduce from the continual offering 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 expressly 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 Sabbath, the 
 original law is distinctly given, though the continued 
 observance by the patriarchs is not expressly mentioned. 
 If objections are urged on the ground of these omis- 
 sions, 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 observance by the holy seed.^ 
 
 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 
 
 * Owen. 
 
16 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 paradise, but sufficiently discernible in that connexion, 
 for the purpose of rebutting a mere objection. 
 
 The very first act of divine worship after the fall 
 affords some indication of a day of religion. Cain and 
 Abel brought their offerings " 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." Read the 
 whole account in the sacred narrative. There you have 
 the priest, altar, matter of sacrifice, motive, atonement 
 made and accepted, and appointed tim.e — indications 
 these entirely consistent with the supposition of a pre- 
 vious sabbatical institution, and indeed proceeding upon 
 it, if that is the meaning of the expression, " at the end 
 of the days." And as only one division of days had 
 been mentioned, that of the days of the week, the 
 Sabbath being the last or seventh of them — the end of 
 them — we may reasonably suppose that holy season to 
 be here termed " the end of the days." 
 
 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 ordinary 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 
 u^Don the earth." These passages occur in the seventh 
 chapter. Then in the next, when the flood is decreas- 
 ing, Noah sent out a dove, which returned ; he then 
 stayed " yet other seven days," and again sent it forth. 
 And again in the same terms, " And he stayed yet 
 other seven days,'' and " sent forth the dove out of 
 the 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 peculiar with it ; and 
 
 ^ English translation. 
 
 2 Gen. vii. 4, 10 ; viii. 10, 12. 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 17 
 
 we judge it probable, from the institution of the Sab- 
 bath, that the 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 remains of the heathen writers, Hesiod, 
 Homer, Callimachus — the sanctity of the seventh day 
 is referred to as a matter 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 notices 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 dis- 
 cernible. 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, that the rite of circumcision was to 
 be performed after the lapse of seven days from the 
 birth. But again, the commendation of Abraham, 
 " That he would command his children, and his house- 
 hold 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. The Sabbath 
 was probably amongst them. But in the more full de- 
 claration afterwards made concerning him to Isaac ; 
 " That Abraham obeyed his voice, and kept his charge, 
 his commandments, his statutes, and his laws;" the 
 terms employed are so various, as to be by no means 
 naturally interpreted of the ordinance of circumcision,^ 
 but to include, with the highest probability, the " charge 
 and law" of the Sabbath. 
 
 ^ Gen. xvii. 12 ; xviii. 19 ; xxvi. 5, 
 
18 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 In the history of Jacob, few, I think, can doubt, that 
 when he 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 the worship of God in a stated 
 place, and on a stated time ; 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."i But I will not dwell on 
 more particulars. The numerous, the almost perpe- 
 tual 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 
 reasonable 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." 2 
 
 So utterly gratuitous is the assumption that the ob- 
 servation of a day of religious worship was unknown to 
 the patriarchs. Probably the very notoriety of the in- 
 stitution might be one cause why the sacred historian 
 judged it unnecessary to dwell on particular recur- 
 rences of its observance. At all events, the mere 
 silence of Scripture afterwards, can never be fairly 
 alleged against the previous institution of the Sab- 
 bath in paradise, when even the admission 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 pri- 
 meval ordinance became faint, and the observation of 
 it by the enslaved people almost impracticable. But 
 it does not appear to have been even then wholly for- 
 gotten. For we observe, that, 
 
 ' Gen. xxix. 27. "^ Zoh'i.l^; ii. 11. 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 19 
 
 III. The manner in which the Sabbath was 
 
 REVIVED AND RE-ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE COM- 
 MENCEMENT OF THE MosAicAL ECONOMY, proves that 
 it was a previous institution, which had never been en- 
 tirely lost ; and therefore confirms all we stated of its 
 origin in paradise, and its continuance during the pa- 
 triarchal ages. An interval of two thousand live hun- 
 dred 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 Abraham. Two 
 centuries of captivity in Egypt had also reduced the 
 religious knowledge of the people of Israel to the lowest 
 ebb. If, therefore, the authority of the Sabbath sur- 
 vived this last stage of bondage, we may fairly con- 
 clude 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 prepare that which they bring in, and it 
 shall be twice as much as they gather daily." ^ Here 
 is no express mention 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 de- 
 livering 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 had said. To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sab- 
 bath unto the Lord your God." What had the Lord 
 said ?— nothing directly about the Sabbath; but the 
 allusion to the division of timx into six working daj^s 
 was enough — the Sabbath was known to follow them. 
 If similar terms were employed in any modern act of 
 parliament, every one would understand that it referred 
 to some previously existing statute or custom, of which 
 the knowledge was not altogether lost. 
 
 And thus the restoration of the Sabbath before the 
 Mosaical law seems designed to link the Patriarchal 
 ^ Exodus xvi. 
 
20 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [SERM. I. 
 
 with the 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 primeval and universal 
 obligation ; whilst the 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, perhaps, 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 suc- 
 cessful. All is consistent. The grandeur of creation 
 gave an impulse and projection to the law of the Sab- 
 bath, which human corruption was unable to efface, 
 even before Moses arose to recall 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, by the very reference, confirms us in the faith of 
 the positive fact of a previous institution. 
 
 I. Let us then, first, in applying this part of our 
 subject, observe the extreme violence which is 
 DONE TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, when any important 
 fact in the Scriptures, such as the institution of the Sab* 
 bath 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 suggested by some rash person or other. It is 
 strange, it is new, attractive — this commends it. The 
 men are ingenious — they can write — they can defend 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 21 
 
 the monstrous supposition. The great body of the 
 church, at first, despise the perversion ; but the young 
 are injured. In an inquisitive age, half-knowledge pre- 
 vails. The human heart is too much disinclined to spiri- 
 tual religion, not to catch at any plea for neglecting the 
 day of divine worship. Thus the evil spreads. The 
 original author was not deeply penetrated with that re- 
 verence for revelation as the communication of the will 
 of God, which forbids rash innovation — was not, per- 
 haps, conscious that the foundation of all faith is over- 
 turned, if the plain, straight-forward interpretation of 
 historical passages is exchanged for conjecture, hypo- 
 thesis, inventions 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 existence of evil spirits, doubts the 
 temptation of our Lord, and goes on to question the 
 truth of the Mosaic or Christian 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 doc- 
 trine of the Holy Spirit, the truth of our regeneration 
 by that blessed Spirit, and of spiritual religion altoge- 
 ther. Thus the peculiar revelation of the Bible is gone 
 — and yet we call ourselves Christians. 
 
 We must resist this fatal poison. 'Jo say that the 
 narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in paradise 
 is put out of its place, is a violence to faith. This is 
 enough. When the difficulty is first started^ the mind 
 of the Christian may perhaps tremble at it — he may 
 suppose that he cannot easily demonstrate that the as- 
 sertion is groundless. But he can demonstrate it. To 
 
 CHANGE THE ORDER OF A SERIES OF EVENTS IN A 
 SCRIPTURAL NARRATIVE, WITHOUT EXPRESS AUTHO- 
 RITY, IS A VIOLENCE TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 ALL BELIEF IN REVELATION. This is a moral demon- 
 stration : no mere hypothesis ought to stand for a mo- 
 ment against it. 
 
22 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH [sERM. I. 
 
 And more especially should we speak with this deci- 
 sion 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 distribution 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 
 period of creation, to a distance of two or three thou- 
 sand years, without an intimation in the narrative itself, 
 against 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 
 submission of heart to God, that restraint of human 
 curiosity and presumption, in which the essence of faith 
 so much consists. It is the wrong state of heart which 
 is the hot-bed where these pernicious notions are gene- 
 rated. Let the heart delight in the divine worship ; let 
 the heart meditate on the divine perfections in Christ 
 Jesus with holy complacency ; 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 a 
 due contemplation of the glories of creation, as often 
 as the day returns. 
 
 IL Yes, come with me, before we close thisaiscourse, 
 and LET us adore and praise the Almighty Fa- 
 ther OF 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' crea- 
 tive wonders. I am persuaded, that the first Sabbath 
 is not enough magnified. We are familiar with the 
 
SERM. I.] IN PARADISE. 23 
 
 tenor of the simple and sublime narrative from our in- 
 fancy. Our hearts are cold to devotion ; 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 
 peculiarit}^ of this ; no other institution, no other ser- 
 vice, no other ordinance 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 labour, but it is after his pattern. Imitate the su- 
 preme 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 a 
 blessed and a sanctified season. Plead the promise 
 attached to the Sabbath : it is blessed of God, it is 
 sanctified of God, it is hallowed of God. Implore for- 
 giveness of your past neglect. Let no Sabbath hence- 
 forth pass over you, without your having sought the 
 blessings it promises, and performed the duties to 
 which it is dedicated. Let your devout medication 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 kindness 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 Saviour 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 the ten commandments again promulgating its 
 divine obligation ; the prophets enforcing its observ- 
 ance ; the blessed Jesus vindicating its gracious sim- 
 plicity ; the Apostles and the universal church handing 
 down to us its sacred obligations. Yes, let the brighter 
 ■• Job xxxviii. 17 ; Prov. viii. 23 — 31. 
 
24: INSTITUTION OF SABBATH. [SERM. I. 
 
 day of the gospel guide our feet to that sacred season, 
 which was first consecrated in paradise ; which was 
 then surrounded, for a time, with the garb of figurative 
 observances ; which was afterwards restored to its 
 simple and original design by our Saviour ; and which 
 stands the pledge and foretaste of the heavenly state. 
 Yes, the Sabbath stretches through all ages ; affects 
 all men in every 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 
 honour 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 pre- 
 paration, the end. 
 
 ^ 
 
SERMON 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 labour and do all thy work : but the seventh 
 day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : iJi it thou 
 shall not do any ivork, thou^ nor thy son^ nor thy daugh- 
 ter^ thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servafit, nor thy 
 cattle, 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 : where- 
 fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. 
 
 We have- proved that the Sabbath was instituted in pa- 
 radise, by adhering simply to the inspired record. We 
 have also silenced 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 ceremonial dispensation. And here 
 the objection to its divine authority and obligation rests 
 on its being merely a ceremonial and temporary ap- 
 pointment, 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 
 
26 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM II. 
 
 have neglected the divine command; and if at the deli- 
 verance 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 
 cannot 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 esta- 
 blished 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 arguments, and for placing in a yet 
 stronger light the immutable obligation of the day of 
 weekly rest. 
 
 We assert, then, I. that from the very commence- 
 ment of the Mosaical economy, the fourth command was 
 incorporated in the moral law ; II. that when the cere- 
 monial usages were in their greatest vigour, the Sabbath 
 appeared high and distinct above them ; and III. 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 
 affords 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 commandment is just as binding as any of the 
 remaining nine. There it is, a part of the moral law 
 of God ! If the attempt to feign an anticipated history 
 was proved to be an invasion on the first principles of 
 faith ; the endeavour to displace the fourth Tommand- 
 ment is an open invasion of the first principles 
 BOTH OF Faith and obedience. For everything 
 conspires to cast an importance around the ten com- 
 mandments peculiar to themselves. 
 
 Consider the broad line of demarcation be- 
 tween them and the ceremonial usages. The decalogue 
 is a summary of all those dictates of the love of God 
 
SKRM II.] LAW OF MOSES. 27 
 
 and man, which were written upon the heart of Adam 
 before the fall. These commands were kept, in sub- 
 stance, b}' the patriarchs before they were reduced to 
 a code. They are the eternal rules of right and wrong, 
 resting on the authoritative will of God, and arising 
 from the essential relations in which man stands to his 
 Creator, and his fellow-creatures. They are the stan- 
 dard of human obedience, the transcript of the divine 
 holiness. I'he unchanging authority of these precepts 
 is the foundation of all religion, the rule of domestic 
 life, the bond of civil government, the grand tie and 
 security of human society. Between these and the 
 ceremonial usages there is a vast interval. The judi- 
 cial and ceremonial law was temporary, of positive en- 
 actment, for a time and for certain purposes only ; had 
 no existence before 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 ap- 
 peared. All its enactments therefore were without 
 the boundary of the moral law, not within it ; within 
 that boundary nothing was abolished when Christ came ; 
 without it, everything. Within it all was eternal and 
 immutable ; without it, all was temporary and change- 
 able. No confusion is made by any considerate Chris- 
 tian 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 universal authority. The particular 
 redemption from Egypt, the length of days attached 
 to filial obedience, the punisliment of idolatry visited 
 on the third and fourth generation, and the mercies 
 to thousands promised to the keepers of the divine 
 lawji in no respect change the main, grand, distinctive 
 foundations of moral obligation on which the command- 
 ments themselves repose. These constitute a code or 
 
 ' Even these are, in their comprehensive and typical import, of 
 perpetual force — in the redemption of Christ, the spiritual bless- 
 ing on filial obedience, &:c. 
 
 c 2 
 
28 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. 11. 
 
 book of laws 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, the same obligation carries with it the fourth. 
 If men are bound in every age and under all dispensa- 
 tions to acknowledge only one God,^ to worship him, 
 not with graven images, but in spirit and in truth, ^ to 
 reverence the divine name,"* to obey their parents,^ to 
 abstain from murder,^ adultery,^ theft,^ false witness,9 
 concupiscence,^*' they are equally bound to consecrate 
 a Sabbath to their Maker's service, after six days of 
 ordinary labour and toil.^i This proportion of time had 
 been made known to man in ptiradise, and exhibited 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 revelation of what 
 that time should be, the whole stands a moral and un- 
 changing rule of man's obedience. As the first com- 
 mand 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 pre- 
 ceding commands 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 com- 
 mands, 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, 
 
 ^ 1st commandment. ^ 2nd. * 3rd. ^ 5th. 
 
 6 6th. 7 7th. 8 8th. 9 9th. 
 
 '0 10th. " 4th. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 29 
 
 upon the revelation of God's will as to the exact pro- 
 portion of time to be consecrated to his service. The 
 authority of that appointment, however, v/hen 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 
 precept. It is unlike the rest ; it is more detailed, more 
 explicit; it extends to more classes of persons, and is 
 sustained by more reasons. Its introduction also is dif- 
 ferent. Instead of a mere injunction or prohibition, it 
 refers to a preceding enactment " Remember the Sab- 
 bath day to keep it holy ;" as if on purpose to connect 
 the law of the Sabbath in paradise with its republica- 
 tion at the solemn establishment of the Mosaical dis- 
 pensation — a design which is made yet more apparent 
 at tlie close of the commandment, by the citation of 
 the reason given, and of the blessing and sanctification 
 attached to the institution of the Almighty when he 
 first granted a day of rest to man at his creation. 
 
 Nor is TKE 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_ interruption to all ordinary 
 labours without which it cannot be performed. So that 
 as the tenth commandment shuts up the second 
 table, and reduces, as it were, its injunctions to practice, 
 by forbidding that concupiscence which would infallibly 
 lead to their violation ; so the fourth accomplishes 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 before the ceremonial 
 
30 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 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 restored by a solemn republication. 
 Nor can it be said with truth, that the law of the 
 Sabbath is merely of a ceremonial nature because the 
 
 STRICTNESS OF ITS OBSERVATION WAS RELAXED UNDER 
 
 THE New Testament. For even allowing the case to 
 be so ; a change in the tone and spirit of observing some 
 branches of a commandment, springing from a more 
 benignant dispensation, affects not its fundamental moral 
 authority. The tone and spirit of filial obedience is 
 changed under the Gospel, but the fifth commandment 
 remains. So as to the second commandment. But we 
 deny the fact, in the sense in which it is affirmed, as to 
 the law of the Sabbath. 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 Saviour put upon 
 it, against the uncommanded comments of the Jewish 
 doctors. The prohibition of doing any work never in- 
 cluded, nor was intended to include, acts of real neces- 
 sity and mercy. The whole moral bearing of this com- 
 mand is just as entire now, 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 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 solemn i- 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 31 
 
 TIES WHICH ATTENDED THE PROMULGATION OF THE 
 
 MORAL LAW, of whicli the fourth command is so dlstin- 
 gfuished 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 sur- 
 rounded, in common with the remaining elementary 
 branches of duty, with those traits of visible glorj', that 
 awful voice of words, that detailed record, that refer- 
 ence to a preceding enactment, those reasons of uni- 
 versal application, which, after a lapse of two thousand 
 five hundred years, were best adapted to explain its im- 
 port, 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 attendant angels, and the trembling mount, and 
 the darkness, and all the terrors at which Moses " ex- 
 ceedingly feared and quaked." Recall to mind the so- 
 lemn 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 trumpet sounds, and 
 the voice of words is uttered. 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 prepared 
 by the Almighty himself. Upon these the finger of 
 God inscribes " The Ten Commandments," and add- 
 ETH NO MORE. The tables are broken by Moses as 
 he descends 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 sta- 
 tutes, but separate and alone, within the ark of the co- 
 venant. Can any circumstances impress us with a more 
 awful sense of the singular importance of every precept? 
 Can anything more distinguish and elevate the moral 
 and perpetual, above the temporary and ceremonial 
 
32 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 law — and separate and single out the decalogue, in 
 point of dignity and prominence, from all other enact- 
 ments ? The whole Bible contains nothing so peculiar 
 and majestic, as this introduction to this new dispensa- 
 tion. Where is the man that would 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 professed Christian that will ex- 
 punge the command that happens most to militate 
 against the corrupt practices of mankind ? Where is 
 the man that will obliterate the very precept, which so 
 immediately respects the honour 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 Chris- 
 tians 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 con- 
 tinue to be, as to each particular commandment, and as 
 to the fourth no less than the others, "Lord, have mercy 
 upon us, and incline 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 be- 
 seech thee."i 
 
 II. But we proceed to show, that even when the 
 
 CEREMONIAL USAGES WERE IN THEIR GREATEST 
 
 VIGOUR, THE Sabbath appeared high and distinct 
 
 ABOVE THEM. 
 
 For the law of the weekly rest passes through the 
 Mosaic dispensation. It will be important, then, to 
 show its position during this part of its course. It 
 entered this economy, or rather preceded it, by the pro- 
 mulgation of the moral law, of whose majesty and per- 
 petuity it partakes. It now, however, receives additional 
 rules and appendages, which attend it during the con- 
 tinuance of the Mosaic dispensation. But it is remark- 
 able that these ceremonial enactments are no part of the 
 
 ' Liturgy of the Church of England. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 33 
 
 essential law of the Sabbath as inserted in tlie deca- 
 logue ; and that even during the greatest vigour 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 have here 
 to prove. 
 
 For the Sabbath is now a part of that preparatory dis- 
 pensation, and is attired, as it were, 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 instituted, and included 
 under the general name of Sabbaths ; its external rest 
 is enforced with temporal sanctions ; the presumptuous 
 violator 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 perceive and recog- 
 nise the features of a ceremonial Sabbath. Many com- 
 mandments 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 pecu- 
 liar theocracy of the Jews. 
 
 But the essential moral character of each precept oi 
 the decalogue loses none of its force by these additional 
 ceremonies and judicial statutes. The sin of worshipping 
 any but the one true God, remains just as great, after all 
 the numerous enactments peculiar to the Jews. The sin 
 of making graven images, of taking God's name in vaio, 
 of disobeying parents, of committing murder, adultery, 
 theft, of bearing false witness, of coveting the goods of 
 our neighbour, are precisely the same violations of the 
 immutable rules of right and wrong, as before the tem- 
 porary enactments which affected the chosen people. In 
 like manner, the fourth commandment is unaltered in its 
 essential injunction of a periodical religious rest for the 
 
 c 5 
 
34 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 service of God, tliough it is associated with many 
 temporary and figurative appendages. Nothing can be 
 clearer than this. The principle is admitted with re- 
 gard 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 de- 
 posited within the ark of the covenant. They are all 
 delivered afterwards, in another form, with other views, 
 and to occupy 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 
 shrouded 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 
 ceremonies. 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 vigour 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 
 essential importance of the Sabbath, in a manner quite 
 distinct and peculiar. It is associated with the pri- 
 mary duty of worshipping the one true God, as being 
 of equal obligation, and indeed necessary to it. " Six 
 days shalt thou do 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 remarkable. 
 
 Again, after six chapters more concerning the taber- 
 nacle and its various services and sacrifices, the whole 
 communication of the forty days' abode on the mount 
 is concluded with a re-inculcation of the Sabbath-rest, 
 
 > Exod. xxiii. 12, 13. 
 
SERM. 11.] LAW OF MOSES. 35 
 
 in a manner the most solemn and affecting. " And 
 the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Verily my Sal- 
 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. 
 
 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 doetli and work therein, that 
 soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six da^s 
 may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath 
 of rest, holy to the Lord ; whosoever doeth any work 
 in the Sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death. 
 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sab- 
 bath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their genera- 
 tions, for a perpetual covenant, 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 anything give 
 dignity to the sacred day as founded in the essential 
 relation of man to his Maker and Redeemer, if this sub- 
 lime language does not ? Every idea of sanctification, 
 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. 
 
 Li the following two chapters we have as many ad- 
 ditional recapitulations, with fresh cautions. The book 
 of Exodus closes. The enactments concerning sacrifices 
 and purifications are, however, no sooner despatched in 
 the following 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 mat- 
 ter 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 
 » Exod. xxi. 12—17. 
 
36 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Turn 
 ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten 
 images : I am the Lord your God."i 
 
 I will not dwell on other passages in this book. I 
 hasten to fix your attention on the punishment of death 
 inflicted on the Sabbath-breaker, as recorded in the 
 text. Few persons consider how deeply this case is 
 designed to impress us with the essential obligation of 
 the fourth commandment, and of the immediate honour 
 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 ; because 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 wilder- 
 ness, 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, be- 
 cause it was not declared what should be done to him. 
 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely 
 put to death."2 
 
 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. 
 » Lev. xix. 1—4. 2 Numb. xv. 30—35. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 37 
 
 " Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy 
 God commanded thee : six days thou shalt labour and 
 do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of 
 the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work, 
 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, 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 commanded 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 combination ! 
 
 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 OF ESSENTIAL MORAL 
 OBLIGATION, AND AS DESTINED TO FORM A PART OF 
 THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 Hitherto the objection raised against the perpetuity 
 of the Sabbath on the ground of its being a merely cere- 
 monial enactment, has not only been silenced, but re- 
 futed. 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 vigour 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 
 ^ Deut. V. 12—15. 
 
S8 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 the degenerate people, the preachers of the divine will, 
 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, the seers and pre- 
 dictors of the gospel age. 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 Jewish law — if 
 they are found to denounce the divine indignation on 
 no transgression, except idolatr}^, with so much vehe- 
 mence — and if they appear anxious to reform the 
 manners 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 Sab- 
 bath, and how completely the stress is laid on the per- 
 manent 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 ma- 
 jesty, 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 
 into the house of the Lord." ^ 
 
 These are detached passages. In the 92d 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 
 
 ' Psalms xxvii. Ixxxiv. cxxii. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 39 
 
 business of the Sabbath ;i then the wonders of God in 
 creation — the very reason for the institution ;- next, the 
 deah'ngs of the divine providence in the overthrow of the 
 wicked ;^ and lastly, the operations of grace in the fruit- 
 fulness, even to old age, of those who " are planted in 
 the house of the Lord."^ 
 
 Contrast with this the language of the 30th Psalm, 
 in which a marked disregard is shown for mere ceremo- 
 nies : " 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. 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 hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is 
 mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of 
 bulls, or drink the blood of goats, &c. ?" In this denun- 
 ciation, you will observe that nothing is included which 
 belongs to the essential matters extolled in the former 
 Tsalms. 
 
 In like manner, with what holy indignation does the 
 prophet Isaiah reject the mere outward obser- 
 vances 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 abomination 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, when superstitiously relied on, 
 are swept away with one common reprobation. 
 
 But with what earnestness, on the contrary, is the 
 due celebration of the sabbath extolled in 
 
 ' Psalm xcii. 1 — 3. ^ ver. 4, 5. ^ ver. 6~]l. 
 
 4yer. 12— 15. * Isaiah i. 11— U. 
 
40 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 the subsequent chapter !— It is placed on a level with 
 the PLAINEST MORAL PRECEPTS — the not polluting of 
 it is made the principal thing that pleases God — and 
 
 THE LARGEST PROMISES OF THE EVANGELICAL DIS- 
 PENSATION are connected with the spiritual consecra- 
 tion of the holy day ! "Blessed is the man that dot^^h 
 this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it ; that 
 keepeth the Sabbath from polluting 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 holi- 
 ness of life, and is placed among moral duties. The pro- 
 phet proceeds, "Neither let the son of the stranger that 
 hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying. 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 Sabbaths, 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 congregations of the Lord should 
 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 do this as one means 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 servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath 
 from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant ;" 
 where we notice again, that the sanctification of the Sab- 
 bath is put on the same footing with the laying 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 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 41 
 
 gospel-State — " Even them will I bring to my holy 
 mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer ; 
 their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted 
 upon mine altar ; for mine house shall be called an house 
 of prayer for all people." It appears then that the Gen- 
 tiles who should be called in the times of the gospel, 
 would be under the same duty of keeping the Sabbath; 
 and should thus, and thus only, be made "joyful in that 
 house of prayer" which is destined " for all people." All 
 this falls in exactly with another prediction 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 Sab- 
 bath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, 
 saith the Lord;" which has been constantly fulfilled, and 
 is now fulfilling in the Christian church ; since all 
 FLESH have worshipped before the Lord on that weekly 
 day of religious rest into which the Jewish new moons 
 and sabbatical periods have subsided. Add to this the 
 description which the same inspired author gives of the 
 duties of the Sabbath. They have so clearly a moral 
 obligation and universal force, and involve a tone of de- 
 votion so elevated, that we may truly say, If the Sabbath 
 be a ceremony, we have lost under the gospel one of the 
 brightest glories of revelation. " If thou turn away thy 
 foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my 
 holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, holy of the 
 Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing 
 thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
 speaking thine own words ; then shalt thou delight thy- 
 self in the Lord," &c. ^ 
 
 But we pass from this class of passages, to notice 
 
 those DENUNCIATIONS AGAINST THE SIN OF VIOLATING 
 
 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 his- 
 tory of the sacred people on the presumptous sabbath- 
 
 " Isaiah Iviii. 10, 13. 
 
42 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 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 Jeru- 
 salem : 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 commanded your fathers. But 
 they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made 
 their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive in- 
 struction. But if ye will not hearken unto me — then 
 will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall de- 
 vour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be 
 quenched "i Here the entire prosperity of the nation, 
 and all the favour of God, is suspended on this one 
 branch of moral obedience. To judge of the force of 
 this, contrast it with the same prophet's declaration con- 
 cerning ceremonial observances : " For I spake not unto 
 your fathers, nor commanded them in the day tiiat I 
 brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning 
 burnt-offerings or sacrifices. But this one thing com- 
 manded 1 them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be 
 your God, and ye shall be my people." " 
 
 Again, mark how the prophet Amos reproaches the 
 degenerate people with an impatience of the holy ser- 
 vices of the Sabbath and other festivals : " Hear this, O 
 ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of 
 the land to fail, saying. When will the new moon be 
 gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we 
 may set forth wheat ?" ^ 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel follows. He lived later than 
 Jeremiah and Amos. The Babylonish captivity had 
 now begun ; and the peculiar aggravation of the people's 
 sins is represented to be their profanation of the Sabbath. 
 ** Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign be- 
 tween 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 would pour out my fury upon them in the 
 
 ' Jer. xvii. 19—27. ^ =* Jer vii. 22, 23. 
 
 ^ Amos viii. 4, 5. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 4S 
 
 wilderness, to consume 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 con- 
 tempt 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.''^ 
 Similar charges are reiterated in subsequent chapters of 
 this and the other prophets, and like threatenings de- 
 nounced. 
 
 And what was the particular REFORMATfON 
 
 which Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the prophets after the 
 captivity, were most anxious to effect after the first return 
 of the people from Babylon ? We are now come to the 
 last trace of prophetical revelation. The Old Testament 
 canon is closing. What do the last inspired teachers 
 and leaders testify? What was their chief care ? What 
 their main object ? Was it not to restore the house of 
 God's worship ? to rebuild the temple ? to recall the 
 people to the sanctity 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 religious rest of God. " In 
 those days saw 1 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 Jerusalem on the 
 Sabbath-day ; and I testified against them in the day 
 wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre 
 also therein, which brought fish and all manner of ware, 
 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 
 
 ' Ezek. 5x. 12, 13, 16. 
 
44 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 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 commanded 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 commanded 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 Ma- 
 lac hi 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 fol- 
 low ? 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 V' " 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 to form of the essen- 
 tial 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 have now elapsed since 
 the first Sabbath. The sacred institution stands on the 
 margin of the New Testament dispensation. We natu- 
 rally inquire, then, what will be its dignity, in the king- 
 dom of Messiah, if we find nothing directly to the con- 
 trary ? It derived not its authority from the Levitical 
 law ; it could lose, therefore, none of its sanctity by the 
 abrogation of it. The same respect would be due to it 
 
 ' Nehemiah xiii. 15, 21, 22. 
 
 2 Mai. i. 6, 7, 13 ; iii. ]4; iv. 1. 
 
SERM, II.] LAW OF MOSES. 45 
 
 as before that intervening dispensation. Whatever the 
 Sabbath was when it entered the Mosaic ritual, that 
 would it be when it came out from under it. The cessa- 
 tion of the ceremonial law would no more release the 
 worshipper of God from the observation of a weekly 
 rest, than it would cancel the injunction of filial piety, 
 or the prohibition of theft, murder, adultery, false wit- 
 ness, or concupiscence. The importance of what we have 
 been considering is, in this view, very material. We 
 have shown its divine institution in paradise, the traces 
 of its observance during the patriarchal ages, its re-en- 
 actment in the wilderness before the Mosaical economy, 
 at the miraculous fall of manna. We have also noticed 
 its solemn incorporation in the ten commandments — 
 the awful glories of that promulgation — its dignity 
 above all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion — its es- 
 sential and perpetual obligation as inculcated by the 
 prophets, and destined to form a part of the gospel age. 
 it comes forth, therefore, from the hand of Moses with 
 all its pristine authority, which it had, in fact, never lost 
 as to any portion of the human race, except as the cor- 
 ruption 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 ac- 
 cumulating, 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 eco- 
 nomy which, if it had been merely a ceremony, would 
 have buried it amid a thousand surrounding rites. 
 
 We naturally conclude, therefore, that the gospel will 
 secure to the original institution of the Sabbath more 
 ample scope, higher reverence, a more elevated position, 
 greater dignity and importance. The gospel is the last 
 and most perfect dispensation — the completion of all the 
 preceding, the time of enlarged privilege, and of super- 
 abundant grace ! If, therefore, a weekly day of repose 
 and religious worship was granted to the saints of the 
 patriarchal dispensation — and if this blessing was con- 
 
46 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 tinued, even under the law of bondage, to the Jew, much 
 more will it be vouchsafed to tlie Christian, — much more 
 will it accompany " the law of liberty." We may be sure 
 that the boon is not revoked ; we may be sure that man 
 is not doomed now to seven days' labour instead of six ; 
 we may be sure that 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 time of its first 
 institution. Every fresh motive to the love of God, every 
 ray of glory from Mount Sinai, every prophecy of a 
 future Saviour, had been augmenting proportionably 
 man's duty, by affording him more copious aids in fulfil- 
 ling it. Christians, then, being favoured with a clearer 
 knowledge of the divine will, having more motives to love 
 and serve God, having a more abundant effusion of the 
 Holy Spirit, than had been granted under any preceding 
 period, we may be sure that their character will be supe- 
 rior, their delight in the worship of God more fervent, 
 their celebration of God's praises in creation and redemp- 
 tion proportionably more assiduous. Yet, if a sabbatical 
 institution is not binding upon Christians, we must re- 
 verse the supposition. We must forget the devotion of 
 the patriarchs, the spiritual fervour of the psalmist, the 
 zeal for the Sabbath which animated Nehemiah and 
 Ezra, the delight in its duties foretold by Isaiah as mark- 
 ing 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, therefore, that 
 if one day in seven was the measure under more imper- 
 fect dispensations, a less term cannot suffice under the 
 perfect dispensation of the gospel, when so manyTnotives 
 and inducements to a higher degree of love in the wor- 
 ship of Godji influence the believer in Revelation. 
 
 We shall want, therefore, no enactment, no express 
 
 command 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 moredelight- 
 
 1 Archd. Pott. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES.J 47 
 
 ful 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 encumbrances imposed during 
 the time of the law, and acquiring all the new influence 
 and obligations which the infinite benefits of the gospel 
 confer. 
 
 And thus, as the patriarchal sacrifices passed on 
 into the passover and numerous offerings of the law 
 dm*ing the term of that intervening dispensation, and 
 then emerged in the simple evangelical supper of our 
 Lord — as again the patriarchal circumcision reserved 
 its rites during the same economy, and then yielded to 
 the sacrament of baptism — and as the patriarchal in- 
 stitution 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 
 Christian law of marriage, — so the patriarchal day 
 OF rest, with its worship of God, its celebration of the 
 wonders of creation, and its provision for the religious 
 repose of man, after having been annexed for a period 
 to the national covenant of the Jews, was restored to 
 
 its FIRST DESIGN IN THE CHRISTIAN SaBBATH. 
 
 A re-enactment in the New Testament would be a 
 denial, by implication, of its previous institution and 
 authority. Nothing is enacted in the gospel without 
 a necessity. The baptism of infants is not expressly 
 enjoined; the law of circumcision having sufficiently 
 provided for it. The m.oral law, the essential duties of 
 religion, the relations of man to his Maker and Bene- 
 factor, 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 unchanged. 
 They are taken for granted under the gospel. 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 abrogation 
 intervene. 
 
 But we are anticipating our next discourse. Our ob- 
 ject is merely to bring up the law of the sabbatical rest 
 
48 THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. II. 
 
 to the threshold of the New Testament, and to leave it 
 there, ready to enter. 
 
 Let us then turn from these discussions to some prac- 
 tical 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 in- 
 structed 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, ordi- 
 nary rites, an outward adherence to a national creed, the 
 common decencies of religion. Let it be exalted and 
 placed aloft as the Queen of daj^s. Let the admiration 
 of the Jew, blind as it often was, be a stimulus to the 
 more enlightened devotion of the Christian. Let the 
 mercies of God in the redemption from the Egyptian 
 captivity, which bound with additional motives the Sab- 
 bath 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 espe- 
 cially celebrated. Let the perpetual inculcation of this 
 duty by Moses, on all occasions, in every connexion, by 
 every species of motive, lead us to urge it upon our chil- 
 dren and households on every fit opportunity. Let the 
 solemn promulgation of it in "The Ten Commandments" 
 be the summary of all our arguments, and the brief and 
 conclusive proof to us of the perpetuity of the institution. 
 
 IL And to this end, let us imbibe the spirit of 
 LOVE AND DELIGHT in the worship of God, which the 
 Psalms and Prophets display. We never can imitate 
 the earnestness of Moses, nor place the Sabbath on the 
 prominency where he exhibits it, unless we join-to it the 
 holy David's love to God, and the sublime Isaiah's spiri- 
 tual 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 re- 
 ligion communicates, inferior to the feelings which these 
 holy men experienced ! Let us pray, let us seek for such 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 49 
 
 a spiritual state of heart, for such a real choice and pre- 
 ference of God in Christ Jesus, and such a dehght in the 
 contemplation of his glory in creation, providence, and 
 redemption, as may enlarge 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 honour and 
 esteem which are its due, and make " one day in God's 
 courts better than a thousand." Then, then should we 
 indeed sanctify our Sabbaths. Then would disputes soon 
 cease. Then should we abstain naturally and from choice, 
 from "doing our own ways, finding our own pleasure, or 
 speaking our own words." And what, indeed, can the 
 love of our Saviour Christ, and the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit be said to have done for us, if they have not raised 
 us out of the world, and united us with the spiritual 
 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- 
 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. 
 
 IIL But to 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 denunciation of the prophets, what is the anger 
 of the Lord against those who violate and pollute His 
 Sabbaths. I would urge upon my own conscience, and 
 that of others, the guilt of that weariness in the service 
 of God, that sort of contempt and neglect of its spiritual 
 benefits, that inward disgust for acts of piety and praise, 
 that conceit and self-reliance and self-satisfaction, which 
 are the true causes of our dislike for divine worship and 
 religious repose. I would urge the criminality, the pe- 
 cuHar 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 ease and 
 
 D 
 
oO THE SABBATH UNDER THE [SERM. 11. 
 
 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 difficult and expensive 
 offerings to prepare, no perpetual oblations to provide, 
 no sabbatical years to observe. The simple and noble 
 worship and repose of one day in seven is what God 
 commands, or rather grants as a boon — and only en- 
 joins when we refuse thus to receive it as a benefit. 
 
 Awaken, then. Christian brethren, from the torpor 
 and lukewarmness which too much mark the age in 
 which we live. A philosophic conceit, the pride of 
 intellect, indifference to truth, a selfish calculating love 
 of ease and indulgence, 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 dispensa- 
 tion. And from these sins, a readiness to listen to ob- 
 jections against the Sabbath springs. Who would ever 
 have endured the fiction of an anticipation in the narrative 
 of the glorious work of creation, ^ or of the Sabbath being 
 a merely ceremonial rite, if an indifference and weari- 
 ness for spiritual things had not predisposed the mind 
 to seek an 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 
 hardness of heart, and pride of intellectual distinction, 
 yield to the sweet influences of grace, and we shall 
 honour God in the day which from the creation had 
 been dedicated to him. The anomaly of a Christian 
 loving God, and undervaluing the day of God, has never 
 yet been known. But further, 
 
 IV. Let us IMITATE THE HEROIC ZEAL of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah in vindicating the honour of the Sabbath. 
 Surely the Christian cannot hesitate as to his duty, after 
 
 ' No man ever thought of anticipation in this place, who was 
 not first anticipated with manifest prejudice, says an old writer. 
 
SERM. II.] LAW OF MOSES. 51 
 
 considering the conduct of these inspired men. Each 
 should do what his talent and influence in society en- 
 join 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 merchandise, we may do 
 something to lessen the evil. We may shut the door 
 of our houses — we may prohibit the purchase or recep- 
 tion of articles of consumption by our servants and de- 
 pendants—we may encourage those upon whom we have 
 any influence, to observe the sacred day. Let onl}^ the 
 zeal, the courage, the firmness, the disinterestedness of 
 Ezra and Nehemiah be connected with their piet}' 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, or in 
 those of Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat or Josiah ? The magis- 
 trates and ministers of religion took the lead. Men like 
 Ezra and Nehemiah rose up with hol}^ determination 
 and simplicity. Public conscience and sentiment were 
 addressed. Gross infractions of the day of rest were 
 discouraged. Prayer was offered up at the throne of 
 mercy. God answered the petition, and truth and holi- 
 ness 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 practice of the people, and in the threatenings 
 of the holy prophets, we should especially dread that 
 
 FALSE VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD AND OF THE 
 
 NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY which are generally asso- 
 tiated with the violation of the Lord's day. To wor- 
 ship God aright, is to adore him in his perfections, in 
 his manifestations of himself 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 atone- 
 ment of Christ and in the operations of the divine 
 Spirit, in the communion with himself to which he 
 admits the devout worshipper. All other worship is 
 idolatry. It is the setting up, in fact, of idols in our 
 heart. It is worshipping a God of our own imagina- 
 
 d2 
 
52 THE SABBATH, &C. [SERM. II. 
 
 tion. 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 oft' the God 
 whom that religion regards. We set up the god of 
 the infidel, or of the Socinian, or of 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 spiritual duties of the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. Let the God of the Bible be enthroned 
 in the heart, and the Sabbath which that God blessed 
 and sanctified will be duly honoured. To love him, 
 to glorify him, to worship him, to meditate on his 
 w orks, to prepare for the enjoyment of him for ever, will 
 fully occupy that sacred portion of time which he has 
 appointed 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 Tes- 
 tament, on the subject of the Sabbath, with the grace 
 and strength furnished in the New, and have the patri- 
 archal and Christian day of rest united and fulfilled in 
 all their blessings. 
 
 ^ 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE SABBATH VINDICATED UNDER THE GOSPEL 
 FROM PHARISAICAL AUSTERITIES, AND ESTA- 
 BLISHED BY OUR LORD IN MORE THAN ITS 
 ORIGINAL DIGNITY AND GLORY. 
 
 Mark ii. 27, 28. 
 
 A nd he said unto them, The Sabhath 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 argu- 
 ment for the divine authority and perpetual obhgation of 
 a day of weekly rest. There has hitherto appeared but 
 little of real weight, or even of plausibility, in the objec- 
 tions raised by our opponents. The fiction of an antici- 
 pated 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 advanced them. But the case 
 is different, as it respects the gospel dispensation : our 
 Lord undoubtedly introduced material changes in the ob- 
 servation of the Sabbath as prevalent at the time of his 
 ministry. Undoubtedly he relieved it from many restric- 
 tions. 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 to the first day 
 of the week ; and abrogated finally the ceremonies and 
 rites of the Jewish law. All this is considered by many 
 
54 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 as a repeal of the institution altogether — they view the 
 Christian Sabbath as a new command resting on a new 
 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 Sab- 
 bath," to abrogate or dissolve any divine ordinance, is 
 acknowledged 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 answer two questions : Have we a 
 Sabbath of divine appointment under the gospel? 
 and, Is that Sabbath the Lord's day? The first 
 will occupy the present discourse ; the second the fol- 
 lowing one. 
 
 Now if the statements we have made in our preceding 
 arguments be at all valid, this first question will almost 
 answer itself. For we left the Sabbath on the margin of 
 the Old Testament, ready to step over into the Evangeli- 
 cal dispensation. We had brought up the proof of its 
 continued obligation 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 in- , 
 scribed on the order of creation — the insertion of the law 
 of the Sabbath into the ten commandments — its distinct 
 and lofty position above the ceremonies of Moses in the 
 very midst of that economy — its inculcation by the pro- 
 phets 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 notjbe infe- 
 rior in privilege to the less perfect — that where all is 
 grace, and light, and universality, we should not be allow- 
 ed a smaller portion of time for the immediate honour 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, recognised by our Lord and his 
 
SERM HI.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 55 
 
 apostles — we shall observe our Saviour honouring it on 
 all occasions by his practice, and only vindicating it from 
 unauthorised traditions injurious to its real design. We 
 shall find that nothing is abrogated under the gospel 
 with respect to it, but those temporary ceremonies and 
 statutes which constituted the peculiarities of the Jew- 
 ish age. We shall perceive that the special promise of 
 the New Testament has for its object to rentier its duties 
 more practicable and delightful, and thus to increase 
 tenfold its obligation. 
 
 That is, we shall discover that the solemn axiom deli- 
 vered by our Lord in the text, together with the caution 
 and inference connected with it, establishes the true prin- 
 ciple on which the Christian day of rest is to be enforced. 
 
 The Sabbath was made for man; was originally 
 bestowed on him as a boon — was granted him for his 
 necessary repose from worldly toil and care — was made 
 for man, as consisting of body and soul, as requiring rest 
 and refreshment for tlie one, religious instruction for the 
 other ; as created for his Maker's glory, and destined for 
 eternal happiness or misery — that the Sabbath, in short, 
 was appointed and made, not for the Jews merely, but 
 for man universally, for man as man, in every age, 
 and under all dispensations. 
 
 What a noble declaration of the perpetual design and 
 authority of the institution! Of all our Saviour's axioms, 
 few are more clear, definite, important, universal. It 
 takes for jjranted that there would be a Sabbath under 
 the gospel dispensation : and it defines its purposes — 
 that it was for the advantage and benefit of man — for 
 his highest welfare both as to his body and soul. 
 
 Nor is the caution which our Lord adds less appro- 
 priate, considering the austerities which the Jewish mas- 
 ters had imposed; not man for the sabbath. Their 
 error lay in overlooking the grand moral end of the insti- 
 tution. They taught that "man was made for the Sab- 
 bath." Our Lord recalls the institution to its first and 
 true design; he teaches that it was not a rite ending in 
 itself, and to which its moral purposes should yield; but 
 that God would " have mercy and' not 'sacrifice, and 
 
56 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 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 pharisaical 
 impositions are dissolved, and its genuine simplicity is 
 restored. 
 
 The inference follows of course ; therefore the 
 Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. For the 
 institution having originally been made for the good of 
 man ; and " the Lord of the Sabbath" having become, 
 by his incarnation, " the Son of man," for redeeming 
 him from death, for introducing the last dispensation, and 
 ordering all things in that dispensation for his best wel- 
 fare, therefore the Son of man " is Lord also of the 
 Sabbath," to expound as legislator its injunctions, to 
 annul with authority the impositions 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 several considerations. 
 
 L The recognition of the ten commandments, 
 
 AND of the tenth AMONGST THE NUMBER, which 
 
 our Lord and his apostles make. This is decisive of the 
 question as to the authority of the Sabbath under the 
 gospel. 
 
 It will be recollected, that the moral law had fr^m the 
 time of Moses been perfectly well known as a code or 
 body of moral statutes, under the distinct 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" means with regard to 
 other books. It need scarcely be noticed, also, that 
 "The Commandments" were divided into two parts, the 
 
SERM. 111.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. ^1 
 
 first containing four precepts and no more, the second 
 six ; the whole being ten ; and that the first series \vas 
 summed up in the well-known command of the love of 
 God, and the second of the love of our neighbour. 
 
 Now if our Lord and his apostles recognise the per- 
 petual authority of the whole moral law asamatter taken 
 for granted; 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 oi 
 (jod and man ; if they refer to some of them in a man- 
 ner 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 dis- 
 pleasure against those who should teach any relaxation 
 of the least of these enactments ; — then 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 
 inherit eternal life ?" our Lord at once replied, as a mat- 
 ter perfectly familiar, "Thou knowest the command- 
 -MENTs" — "if thou wilt enter into life, keep the com- 
 mandments," — and when the inquirer demanded which, 
 Jesus recapitulated five ; thus expressly recognising the 
 whole code ? ^ Need I tell you that on another occa- 
 sion 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 neighbour, adding, as if to 
 strengthen his recognition of them — " On these two 
 commandments hang all the law and the propliets ?" - 
 
 Need I tell you that at another time he reproached 
 the Pharisees with having made the commandment of 
 God of none effect b}' their tradition ?"3 Need I remind 
 you, above all, that he declared in one of his most 
 solemn discourses— that on the Mount — that he " came 
 
 • Matt. xix. 16 ; Mark x. 17 ; Luke xviii. 18. 
 ^ Deut. vi. 5 \ Lev. xix. 19 ; Matt. xxii. 36 — 40. 
 3 Matt. XV. 6. 
 
 d5 
 
58 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [sERM. III. 
 
 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 disciples 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 
 argument than such declarations ; especially as our 
 Saviour leaves us in doubt of what he meant by the law, 
 but proceeds to explain several of the ten command- 
 ments ? 1 
 
 And why should I detain you with going over the 
 same ground as to the apostles ? Do they not every- 
 where acknowledge, without addition or diminution, the 
 same decalogue ? 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 an}'^ other commandment, it is briefly com- 
 prehended in this saying, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bour as thyself ?"2 And though he quote not separately, 
 any more than our Lord, the particular 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 
 neighbour, 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_g^ of di- 
 vine 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?"* And how would 
 the apostle have " known sin, except the law had said 
 
 - Matt. V, vi. vii. 2 Roni. xiii. R. 
 
 - 1 John iii. 4. * 1 Cor. ix. 'Jl. 
 
SEKM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 59 
 
 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 ot 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 recognising 
 the usual arrangement in the decalogue, and proving 
 that no commandment had been changed or dispos- 
 sessed 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 num- 
 ber — and the fourth equally with the rest — is establish- 
 ed and recognised — the law of the Sabbath is as authori- 
 tative as the law against theft, murder, or adultery. The 
 code is one entire, inseparable body of moral precepts. 
 " Whosoever," says St. James, in language which im- 
 plies all we are contending for, " shall keep the whole 
 LAW% and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all ; tor 
 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."- 
 
 After the argument of the preceding discourses, it 
 :seems only trifling to object that our Lord has not ex- 
 pressly 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 pre- 
 cepts 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 considered the fourth 
 commandment as surpassing every other in dignity — as 
 they boasted of a most minute and punctilious observ- 
 ance of it — and loaded it with innumerable traditions ; 
 our Lord had only to restore it to its original simplicity, 
 and set it forth by his doctrine and example in its native 
 loveliness. And this is precisely what he did. The neg- 
 lect into which the original law had fallen before the 
 
 ' Rom. vii. 7. 2 jjii^-jc,, jj, ]o, l]. 
 
60 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 Mosaical dispensationj'was supplied by exactly what was 
 then required, an express promulgation — a strong, di- 
 rect, detailed command inserted amongst the other 
 moral precepts. The excess which had been generated 
 by the superstition and formality of the Jews before 
 the gospel economy, was corrected by exactly what 
 was required, the gracious conduct of our Lord. For, 
 
 II. We VENTURE TO ASSERT THAT ChRIST HO- 
 NOURED 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 
 Jewish doctors — a conduct which the apostles also per- 
 fectly understood and imitated in their own practice. 
 Here I beg a particular attention. This is the only 
 point where any reasonable doubt can be entertained. 
 The conduct of our Lord affords a plausible ground of 
 objection — let us calmly consider it. 
 
 On eleven occasions is our Lord's doctrine and spirit 
 with regard to the Sabbath recorded. These are dis- 
 tributed over his ministry. Between the first and second 
 passover we have three : the sermon at Nazareth ;i his 
 teaching at Capernaum,^ and his healing Peter's wife's 
 mother."^ We have four between the second and third 
 passover: the miracle at the pool of Bethesda ;* the 
 plucking the ears of corn ;5 his restoring the withered 
 liand ;6 and his second teaching at Nazareth.7 The 
 remaining occasions occur between the third and fourth 
 passover — the last of his ministry ; his defence of the 
 miracle at the pool of Bethesda;^ his healing of the 
 man blind from his birth ;^ of the woman eighteen years 
 infirm i<^ — and the man afflicted with the dropsy.^i 
 
 Now, if on calmly examining all these narratives, we 
 should find, I. That our Lord always honoured and kept 
 
 ' Luke iv. 16—22. '^ Luke iv. 31—37. ^ Luke iv. 38—41. 
 
 " .John V. 5, ad fin. « Luke vi. 1—5. ^ Matt. xii. 9—21. 
 
 ' Mark vi. 1 — 6. ^ John vii. 21, ad Jin. ^ John ix. 1, ad Jin. 
 
 i" Luke xiii. 10—17. " Luke xiv. 1— (i. 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 61 
 
 the Sabbath ; 2. That he performed miracles of heahng 
 upon it, only when important occasions arose, and in 
 order to confirm his doctrine, and ensure faith in liis 
 messiahship ; 3. That these acts were never in violation, 
 but entirely in accordance with the Mosaic law ; 4. That 
 they were especially designed to relieve the institution 
 from the oppressive traditions of the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees; 0. That no objections were taken against them at 
 first, and that the cavils afterwards raised were only pre- 
 tences to cover their hatred to his divine mission ; 6. 
 That our Lord's defences of himself and his disciples 
 proceeded on what had ever been the real import of the 
 fourth commandment, though misunderstood ; and as- 
 sumed that the Sabbath itself was of perpetual obliga- 
 tion ; 7. That all this is confirmed by our Lord's caution 
 concerning the flight of his disciples at the destruction 
 of Jerusalem ; and 8. By the conduct and doctrines of 
 his inspired apostles at the first promulgation of the 
 gospel — then it will be admitted that our Saviour, so far 
 from relaxing the fourth commandment, or abrogating 
 the essential law of the Sabbath, vindicated it, esta- 
 blished it, and left it in more than its original authority 
 and glory. 
 
 We begin with the three incidents occurring before 
 the second passover. On the very first of these we are 
 told that our I^ord "went, as his custom was, into 
 the synagogue on the Sabbath-da}^, and stood up for 
 to "read." This marks a habit — a habit acted upon 
 in his own city, " where he had been brought up."i 
 The divine discourse cited from the prophet Isaiah 
 followed ; and thus the highest honour is put upon his 
 Father's institution. Capernaum is the next scene 
 presented to us. " He taught the people on the Sab- 
 bath-days, "^ is the record ; betokening again a custom, 
 a course of instruction. But a demonaic is present, 
 and crying out to the disturbance of the worshippers ; 
 the devil is rebuked with a word, quits the possessed 
 sufferer, bears unwilling testimony to our Saviour's mes- 
 
 ' Luke iv. 16—22. « Luke iv. 31—37. 
 
62 THE SABBATH VINLICATED FROM [sERM. III. 
 
 siahship, and diffuses his fame ; so that the evangelist 
 notes the fulfih-nent of the prophecy : " The people 
 which sat in darkness saw a great light. ''^ No idea of 
 a breach of the fourth commandment enters a single 
 mind, no clamour is raised, no accusation is brought 
 against him. The Sabbath is exalted by our Lord's 
 conduct on it. On the same evening, retiring 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 occa- 
 sion were crowds collected, even for this beneficent 
 exertion of powter, on the Sabbath : tiie miracles are 
 separate acts, performed incidentally, on important 
 occasions, and forming a part of our Lord's doctrine 
 and instructions as Messiah."^ 
 
 Between the second and third passover, four similar 
 deeds of mercy occur, and are now first 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. 
 
 First, at the pool of Bethesda, the impotent man, 
 after lying " thirty and eight years in that case," is 
 healed ; and is commanded, in testimony to the truth of 
 the miracle, or rather as a part of the miraculous 
 CURE, to carry away with him the miserable rug or co- 
 vering on which he lay, — which it was the custom of the 
 lower classes to take with them from place to place, and 
 which, if left behind at the pool, might have been lost, 
 though probably the poor creature's only possession.* 
 
 ' Matt. iv. 14 — 16 ; for it was on that occasion. — J 
 
 ' The Jewish Sabbath ended, according to the Jewish reckoning 
 of time, at sunset. 
 
 3 Lukeiv. 18—41. 
 
 "* John V. 5, &c. The beds of the poor in the Holy Land were 
 often mattresses, rugs, and coverings, used during the day for 
 raiment — " If thou take at all thy neighbour'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 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 63 
 
 Next, his disciples passing through the corn-fields, 
 (most likely to or from the synagogue,) and having 
 nothing with them to eat, and no opportunity of procur- 
 ing victuals, pluck the ears of corn to satisfy the pres- 
 sure of instant hunger.^ In the third place, the man with 
 the withered hand is restored, our Lord, who knew the 
 secret thoughts of the Pharisees who were watching him, 
 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 
 recorded, no instance of healing occurring ; and the of- 
 fence at his mission and character breaking out not- 
 withstanding. ^ 
 
 Now in this second series of cases, can any one 
 seriously maintain that there was any violation of the 
 Sabbath, moral or ceremonial, by such conduct and 
 doctrine in such a person as our Lord — a messenger 
 from heaven, one who was executing the office of 
 Messiah, one who sustained his divine message by these 
 divine acts ? Were they not, on the contrary, in the 
 highest degree calculated to honour and distinguish 
 the day of religious worship ? Did they not tend to the 
 immediate glory of his heavenly Father, and to promote 
 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 
 Pharisees lead to a more close examination of the truth 
 of the miracles performed ? 
 
 But " to reap and gather in corn, and to bear and carry 
 burdens, are violations of the rest of the Sabbath, and 
 
 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 of 
 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. 
 
 ' Luke vi. 1— j. ^ ^^j^^.^ ^jj^ 9_i]^ 3 ^i^^]^ ^^ ]_(;^ 
 
64 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 breaches of the ceremonial law," say our opponents! We 
 answer, Yes ; and of the moral also. But then we 
 assert that the plucking a few ears of corn, when pass- 
 ing 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, is not bearing bur- 
 dens. Between the reaper gathering 5::orn in his field, 
 and the disciples' conduct, there was as great a difference 
 as between " the men of Tyre bringing fish and all man- 
 ner of ware to Jerusalem, "^ and the impotent man bear- 
 ing off his bed to his house, in proof of a miraculous 
 restoration to health. Neither the moral nor ceremonial 
 law of the Sabbath, properly understood, was violated. 
 Nothing was violated but the tradition of the Pharisees. 
 
 We pass to the third series of our Lord's conduct and 
 works on the Sabbath — those immediately preceding his 
 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 
 restoration 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 Saviour 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-^ealed 
 liim, and let him go."^ 
 
 Such are the separate narratives, which sufficiently 
 vindicate themselves, considering the high mission which 
 our Lord was fulfilling, and the habitual observation 
 of the worship and law of the Sabbath which he main- 
 tained. 
 
 ' Neh. xiii. 16. * John vii. 21, ad Jin. 
 
 3 John ix. 11, ad Jin. ■* Luke xiii. 10 — 17. 
 
 * Luke xiv, 1 — C>. 
 
SERM. Ill ] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 65 
 
 But, mark the general grounds on which he 
 DEFENDS his conduct, and that of his disciples, in the 
 -second series of his works ^ — for the first cures excited 
 nothing but admiration. 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 sacrifices — the divine decision, " I will 
 have mercy and not sacrifice ;" concluding the defence 
 with the words which form the text of this discourse 
 — " The Sabbath was made for " the highest good of 
 " man ;" " not man 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 
 design. 
 
 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 water- 
 ing ?"2 — "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 in- 
 terpretations of the Pharisees which our Lord meant to 
 oppose. And, indeed, the effect of his remonstrances 
 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."^ 
 
 * " Have ye not Read what David did when he was an hun- 
 gered, 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 
 mito you, in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye 
 had known Avhat this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, 
 ye would not have condemned the guiltless," 
 
 =' Luke xiii. 15. 3 Matt. xii. 11, 12. 
 
 * Luke xiii. 1 7 ; xiv. 6. 
 
66 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 That these actions and cures on the Sabbath were 
 contrary to the notions and false glosses of the 
 JEWISH DOCTORS, I admit. The hatred of the people, 
 and especially of their rulers, to our Saviour's character 
 and mission, was the real cause ; but the uncommanded 
 traditions of the Pharisees afforded them a pretext. And 
 when we consider the extent to which this vexatious and 
 hypocritical system had been carried, and the immense 
 importance to an universal and benignant religion like 
 Christianity, to have one of its chief glories, the day of 
 rest, placed on its true footing, we cannot wonder at the 
 course which our Saviour pursued. The law of the Sab- 
 bath 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.'i 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 and state of 
 man. And thus you have the reason of the seventh- 
 day- Sabbath ."2 
 
 Now the exact points which our Lord determined to 
 be agreeable to the Mosaical law, are those which the 
 Jewish lawyers had prohibited. They excused them- 
 selves, for instance, from offices of piety and charity to 
 their neighbour on the Sabbath, though they alIowj?d the 
 law its tair import when their own ox or ass was to be 
 fed or rescued from danger — that is, they took advantage 
 by their traditional law of the Sabbath to veil their own 
 selfishness. They held again, that no ointment should 
 be applied to a wound on the Sabbath, and that in chro- 
 nical diseases the persons afflicted should endure them a 
 
 ' Wotton's Mishna. - Hejlin in Eel. Rev. 1830. 
 
SERM. HI.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 67 
 
 day longer, rather than attempt a cure on that sacred 
 rest : but they allowed circumcision to be performed on 
 the same day, in order to uphold their exclusive boast 
 as the favoured people of God. Do we wonder, then, 
 that our blessed Lord healed on the Sabbath-day — do 
 we wonder that he selected chronical complaints as the 
 object of his compassion — do we wonder that he bid the 
 impotent 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 
 very traditions which perverted the true design, and en- 
 cumbered 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 
 Christian 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 command- 
 ment, as well as with the ceremonial and judicial sta- 
 tutes 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 wor- 
 shipper of God without a Sabbath, never entered the 
 mind of a Jew or Christian in any age — much less that 
 of our Saviour. 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 tradi- 
 tionary masters ? Why lay down distinctions between 
 what is lawful and what is unlawful to be done? - Why 
 determine that works of mercy and charity are allow- 
 able, thus implicitly prohibiting all other works ? Why 
 not silence the Pharisees by declaring that the Sabbath 
 was a merely temporary observance, about to vanish 
 
 ' Mark the expression, " Wherefore it is lawful to do well 
 (to heal the sick and similar acts) on the Sabbath-day." — Matt, 
 xii. ]2. 
 
68 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [ SERM. III. 
 
 before the permanent law of the gospel ? When our 
 Lord, therefore, instead of all this, defends himself and 
 his disciples by a mode of argument in which the per- 
 manence of the Sabbath is assumed, we conclude that 
 he meant to teach that the moral obligation of it re- 
 mained, and would remain under the gospel age. 
 
 It is thus he explained and vindicated other 
 COMMANDS, taking for granted the validity of the 
 commands themselves, and adding his authoritative ex- 
 positions. Who ever thought that his extension and 
 new^ application of several precepts of the moral law, in 
 the sermon on the Mount, was intended to weaken the 
 force of the original commands ? Who ever imagined 
 that when the traditions concerning 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 
 SUPPOSING 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 generally — 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 sea- 
 son, the other from the obligation of the fourth com- 
 mandment, would obstruct their escape. The observa- 
 tion cannot be expounded by any superstitious fejlrs of 
 violating a ceremonial or Mosaical precept, or even the 
 tradition of the elders ; because flight under eminent 
 peril was allowed by the Pharisaic traditions. The ar- 
 gument, therefore, is unanswerable. 
 
 But how did the inspired apostles understand 
 their Master's doctrine ? What was their conduct im- 
 mediately upon the descent of the Spirit, and in the in- 
 terval between the abrogation of the ceremonial law, and 
 
SERM. ril.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 69 
 
 the change of the day of rest from the seventh to the 
 first of the week? Did they, or did they not, honour 
 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 bejond 
 the time when the Christian Sabbath (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 Mosaical and 
 Christian. I speak not of the holy women, who, em- 
 bued 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 oc- 
 curs naturally and without effort, in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, even where the Jews are not concerned: " And 
 the Gentiles besought that these words might be preach- 
 ed unto them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath 
 almost the whole city came together to hear the word of 
 God." " Nor will I do more than refer to the apostle's 
 habit, copied from tliat 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 command- 
 ment 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 intend- 
 ed, and which the tenor of the precept was meant to 
 include. Not even the ceremonial and temporary ap- 
 pendages of the Mosaical economy were violated by our 
 Lord. All his conduct exalted and honoured the day of 
 his heavenly Father, and vindicated it from the false 
 
 ' Luke xxiii. '^, ' Acts xiii. 42 — 45. 
 
70 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 glosses of the masters, which, injurious as they were to 
 the Jewish rehgion, would have " eaten as doth a can- 
 cer " into the Christian — and, in fact, would have been 
 a fatal obstruction to its universal propagation. 
 
 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 altera- 
 tion of the moral law of his Maker, but pardon, grace, 
 salvation — motive 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, is set forth in his kingdom in more than its 
 original dignity and glory. 
 
 IIL We proceed, then, to our next point, which is 
 indeed implied in what we have already proved — That 
 nothing is abrogated under the Christian dispensation 
 with respect to the Sabbath, but those temporary 
 and figurative enactments which constituted 
 
 the peculiarities of the JEWISH AGE. 
 
 For that these are abrogated it is important for us to 
 remember. W^e maintain not now the Jewish Sabbath, 
 nor the Mosaic Sabbath, nor the ceremonial Sabbath. 
 Here we request a particular attention. It is a miscon- 
 ception almost constantly made. The moment we defend 
 the original institution of the Sabbath as enaoVed in 
 paradise, or its perpetuity and authority 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 honour- 
 ed 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 wc 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 71 
 
 maintain that the primitive and patriarchal is restored 
 and reanimated with the pecuHar grace and motives of 
 the Christian dispensation. The moral, essential law of 
 the day of rest remains, nay is increased in obligation, 
 like every other precept of the decalogue ; the ceremo- 
 nial and judicial superadditions have passed away with 
 the temporary dispensation which gave them birth. 
 
 Our argument from the example and doctrine of our 
 Lord went, indeed, to prove, not only that he recognised 
 the moral law of the fourth commandment, but that he 
 also honoured itsMosaical 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 shadoAvs " 
 of the Jewish law — that the Mosaic covenant " decayed 
 and waxed old, and vanished away," and that the evange- 
 lical covenant took its place — and that all that part of the 
 sabbatical observances, which was temporary and figura- 
 tive, and dependenton the Jewish theocracy, was carried 
 away; and nothing left but the primary essential law of 
 one day's religious rest, after six days' labour, as first 
 promulgated in paradise, as re-established 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 sacraments ; and a new and 
 simpler sanctification of the Sabbath, as the season allot- 
 ted 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 
 sacrifices, and indeed all sacrifices, of animals; the shew- 
 bread ; the holy vestments ; the Levitical priesthood it- 
 self; the civil and judicial statutes ; the signs and badges 
 of a national covenant; the ceremonial ablutions; the 
 
72 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SEUM. III. 
 
 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 some of them have 
 been in certain periods of the Christian Church,) may be 
 justly denominated "carnal ordinances;" "weak and 
 beggarly elements ;" " 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." ^ 
 
 The converts, indeed, from the Jewish people were 
 permitted to observe for a season the injunctions of the 
 Mosaic institutes — and those connected with the Sab- 
 bath amongst the number — supposing they relied not 
 upon them for justification. Thus St. Paul circumcised 
 Timothy, fulfilled his vow as a Nazarite,kept the Jewish 
 Sabbath after the Christian had commenced, walked 
 unblamably 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."^ 
 
 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 anti- 
 quated yoke, and were taught the true spirituality of the 
 Christian. "Blotting out the handwriting 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 declaration ; 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^t^ings 
 TO COME ; but the body is of Christ."* 
 
 And yet more pungently to the self-justifying Gala- 
 tians : " How turn ye again to the weak and beggar- 
 ly elements, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage ! 
 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I 
 
 1 Gal.iv. 9-, Acts XV. 10. « Gal. v. 1. 
 
 ' 1 Cor. ix. 20. * Col. ii. 14—17. 
 
SERM. in.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 73 
 
 am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labour in 
 vain."i 
 
 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 disputations. 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 every day alike ; let every man be fully per- 
 suaded in his own mind." " 
 
 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 immediately 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 
 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 institution of the day of rest in Para- 
 dise — its primary moral character and obligation, from 
 its incorporation into the decalogue — its essential dig- 
 nity and importance even when surrounded with the ap- 
 pendages of the intervening economy of Moses — its 
 inherent authority as urged by the most evangelical of 
 the prophets — and its entire authority and force when 
 purified from the corruptions of the Pharisees by our 
 Saviour ; — having a right to take all this for granted, 
 the passages just cited strongly confirm our general 
 argument, by showing that nothing but the ceremonies 
 and shadows connected with it are dispersed ; the sub- 
 stance still remaining. 
 
 In fact, what took place with regard to the fourth 
 commandment, 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 
 appendages. When that dispensation ceased, she put 
 off her robes, and re-assumed her original simplicity of 
 » Gal. iv. 7—11. 2 T?oi-n. xiv. 1 , 5. 
 
74 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 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 ma- 
 jesty 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 prero- 
 gatives under the New Testament. 
 
 IV. For this is the last point which establishes the 
 dignity and glory of the weekly day of religious rest 
 under the Christian dispensation, that the distin- 
 guishing PROMISE OF the NeW TESTAMENT HAS 
 FOR ITS OBJECT TO RENDER THE DUTIES OF THE 
 SABBATH MORE DELIGHTFUL, AND THUS INCREASES 
 TENFOLD THEIR OBLIGATION. 
 
 For what is the distinguishing promise of the New 
 Testament ? 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 com- 
 mandments 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 
 finger 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 
 purpose, if he had himself relaxed any part of this law ? 
 And does not this promised aid increase the obligations 
 of this law upon nian, 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 
 covenant, 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 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 7.5 
 
 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 deca- 
 logue of which we speak) into their mind, and write 
 them in their hearts." ^ 
 
 And accordingly is not the first commandment, to 
 worship 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 precept 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 exhibited in the very order of the first 
 creation, and not engraven in the order of the new 
 creation ? ^ Is the soul of 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 imme- 
 diate service of his God ? No, my brethren ; 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 all our preceding 
 arguments ; and especially that fi'om 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 Au- 
 thor of the transcription. Mar]^, I entreat you, his 
 language : " Forasmuch 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 
 
 IN TABLES OF STONE, but IN FLESHLY TABLES OF THE 
 
 HEART." 3 Here then are the two tables of stone, the 
 
 ' Heb.viii, 8—10. 
 
 ■^ " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ;" or, nkv/ 
 «;iiBATiON. — 2 Cor. v. 17. ^ 2 Cor. iii. 3. 
 
 E 2 
 
76 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 two tables of the law — the first and second — the one 
 containing 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 commandments fall away ? In the Chris- 
 tian's heart, the two tablets are re-impressed, the two 
 tablets as they came from the hand of God. And has 
 the fourth commandment disappeared in the passage, 
 through which all the rest have found their way from 
 the tablets of a literal inscription, to those of the Chris- 
 tian's heart ? No, my brethren ; if " there were a win- 
 dow in the Christian's bosom, you would see the fourth 
 commandment filling as large a space of that epistle 
 w^hich 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 commandments are not grievous ;" ^ 
 you will find him saying with the Psalmist, " Therefore 
 hold I straight all thy commandments, 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 obliga- 
 tion of all the commandments, and therefore of the 
 fourth, increased. We stated in a former place, that the 
 new motives which the advancing privileges and light 
 of the church continually afforded, were so many addi- 
 tional 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 beingjthe 
 distinguisln'ng object of all his operations — producmg a 
 transfer of the law of the Sabbath from stony to fleshy- 
 tables ; and thus ending in a far lighter burden indeed 
 as to external service, but a far weightier obligation in 
 respect of love and gratitude ? 
 
 But it is time to close the discussion, which has been 
 
 ^ Chalmers. - Rom. vii. 22. 
 
 •^ 1 John V. 3. 4 Psalm cxix. 128. 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 77 
 
 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 
 carries on the argument to a moral demonstration. 1 
 have dwelt at length on the conduct and doctrine of our 
 Lord, because it is the onlypointof apparent difficulty. 
 The first blush of the other objections condemns them. 
 But the objection raised from this has its plausibility ; it 
 demanded and has rewarded our examination. 1 feel 
 confident that in the main, the view now presented is 
 the true one. If any doubt is suffered to rest on the ques- 
 tion, whether our Saviour 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 Saviour of mankind. The topics 
 which would remain would still be conclusive — that our 
 Lord honoured and reverenced the institution itself — 
 based his defence of what he did and said with regard to 
 it on the Old Testament, and the admitted usages of the 
 Mosaic dispensation — only opposed the false command- 
 ment of the traditionary doctors — and left the moral and 
 substantial duty untouched. These points would be ad- 
 mitted. Add then, to these, the express recognition of 
 the ten commandments by Christ and his apostles — the 
 conduct of the apostles in honouring the Sabbath after 
 his example — and the special office of the Holy Ghost 
 under the gospel, augmenting the obligation, whilst it fa- 
 cilitates the discharge of its duties — and we have an ac- 
 cumulation of evidence which requires no aid from the 
 question of our Lord's exact conformity to the cere- 
 monial law. 
 
 Let any one apply the argument as thus deduced from 
 the reasonings and conduct of Christ concerning the 
 moral law of the Sabbath, to any statute of human legis- 
 lation 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 au- 
 thority of the original provisions of the statute ; and he 
 
78 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. III. 
 
 would instantly say, the establishment of that authority 
 in its real and paramount 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 
 re-promulgation 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 neces- 
 sary to man, as man, and so delightful also to the devout 
 mind — that the thought would never have occurred to 
 any creature, that our Lord abrogated the fourth com- 
 mandment. The Jews accused him of breaking 
 
 IT, BUT never of DENYING ITS OBLIGATION OR SAP- 
 PING ITS CLAIMS. The Jews at the time of Christ were 
 indignant even at the violation of their oral precepts con- 
 cerning the Sabbath, and they carried their prejudices 
 with them into the Christian church. The Gentile con- 
 verts had many of them been accustomed to religious 
 festivals and days of repose — the corruptions and faint 
 vestiges of the original Sabbath. All therefore were pre- 
 pared for keeping the fourth, as well as every other of 
 THE COMMANDMENTS. There was no one to deny its 
 divine authority ; and when the gracious interpretation of 
 its true import 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 institution were fulfilled in the celebration of the 
 divine praises in creation, in redemption, in grace, and 
 in the anticipations of the heavenly repose. 
 
 I. Yield, then. Christian brethren, to these accumu- 
 lated proofs. Open your hearts to the gracious Saviour, 
 that he may re-establish there the authority of the day 
 of his heavenly Father. Consider the many additional 
 motives to its observance which flow from the compassion 
 of your Redeemer ; mark his tenderness in asserting the 
 
 * For examiile, the question of pauperism in England — the ori- 
 ginal law for the care of the aged and infirm, cleared from the 
 ahuses afterwards superinduced. 
 
SERM. III.] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 79 
 
 day of rest for its proper spiritual purposes ; observe his 
 permission of those works of real necessity and mercy 
 which render an attendance on them more practicable. 
 You have not a Saviour who allows the Sabbath to be 
 buried under the rubbish of human commandments. You 
 have not a Saviour who, from, indifference or cowardice, 
 fears to put down the pharisaical imposers of austerities. 
 No. Behold ! he enters the synagogue on the holy 
 Sabbath — he teaches ; he applies to himself the divine 
 prophecies concerning the Messiah ; he heals the sick in 
 confirmation of his doctrine ; he rebukes devils, and they 
 leave the possessed and proclaim his name and glory. It 
 is on the Sabbath that he does this ; and it is in this way 
 that, as the Messiah, he distinguishes and honours 
 it. He vindicates 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 witljered arm — he commands the devout wor- 
 shipper, 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 miracu- 
 lously 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 Saviour of 
 mankind. Hadst thou not, O Saviour, thus cleared up 
 the law of the Sabbath by this thine hol}^ example and 
 doctrine, how long might thy church have been per- 
 plexed with doubts — how much might superstition 
 and tyranny over the conscience have prevailed I 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, iNow thou hast taught, not only 
 
 that THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN," but that 
 " MAN WAS NOT MADE FOR THE SABBATH." NoW we 
 
 have nothing to do under thy new dispensation, but 
 drop the temporary ceremonies of the Mosaic law, 
 and return to the simplicity of the patriarchal worship. 
 
80 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM [SERM. Hi. 
 
 inspired and elevated with the grace of thy all-bounti- 
 ful Spirit. " 
 
 II. And here let us learn, Christian brethren, to 
 shun the ingratitude of making use of the com- 
 passion OF OUR Saviour to the tacit disparage- 
 ment OF THE Sabbath itself, which our Lord, as we 
 have seen, has honoured by the very acts which were 
 alleged as infringing its sanctity. If the intention of 
 our Saviour was, as I am fully convinced every fair and 
 unprejudiced hearer will admit, to magnify his heavenly 
 Father's institution — if every denunciation against the 
 hypocrisy and severity of the Pharisees was so much of 
 real dignity and authority added to the Sabbath ; then 
 let us beware of the guilt of abusing all this to un- 
 righteousness 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 P^ Surely no abuse of the divine goodness 
 can be more criminal than to take occasion, from a sym- 
 pathy so exuberant, to rob God of his due, our souls of 
 their best blessings, the poor of their season of repose, 
 the church of the edification of our example. Surely 
 this is a branch of that practical antinomianism which 
 " turns the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into lascivi- 
 ousness." And be it well remembered, that if we once 
 violate conscience in our search after truth, there is no 
 telling whither we may wander. The calm examina- 
 tion of the question of the Sabbath is our bounden duty. 
 I am endeavouring to assist you in the inquiry. hX the 
 points where mistakes may arise, 1 have put you on 
 your guard. Time for settling the judgment I readily 
 allow : differences on minor branches of the argument 
 I cheerfully concede. But this I must remind you of; 
 fear, reverence, faith, simple subjection of soul to the 
 truth, are essential to all religious inquiries. Yield, then, 
 to the call of grace. Abuse not the mercy of your Sa- 
 
 ^ Ogden. 
 
LEBM. III."] PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 81 
 
 viour. Rather implore that spiritual influence of" the 
 grand Comforter, which may render the duties of the 
 Christian Sabbath a delight and joy. 
 
 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 yoke, not 
 only of Pharisaical impositions, but of ceremonial obser- 
 vances, is broken off" your neck. The law of the Sab- 
 bath 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 feel- 
 ings 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 3^ou know them, because they are spiritually discern- 
 ed ?"i 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 sanctify- 
 ing 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 exercises of that day 
 are the festival and nourishment and element of the re- 
 newed and holy heart. Yes, all the transport of the 
 Psalmist, all his repose and joy in God, all his mourning 
 when banished from his courts, all his longing, yea, 
 
 'Cor. ii. 14. 
 
 E 5 
 
82 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. [SERM. III. 
 
 fainting after his house, all his perception of satisfaction, 
 and rehef, and holy pleasure in his service, will be expe- 
 rienced, in proportion as the vivifying Spirit quickens 
 your soul. Men who are formal in religion, naturally 
 betray an indifference to the holy day. As the means 
 of grace have little practical influence upon them, a small 
 matter induces them to dispense with the encumbrance. 
 But the 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 live- 
 liest pledges and anticipations 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 man- 
 sions, where he " shall dwell in the house of the Lord 
 for ever." 
 
 -J 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED BY DIVINE AUTHO- 
 RITY FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY 
 OF THE WEEK, OR LORD'S DAY. 
 
 Revelation i. 10. 
 
 / was in the spirit on the Lords Day. 
 
 We have completed all that is essential in the first divi- 
 sion of our general subject. We have proved the divine 
 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 
 dignity assigned to it by Moses and the prophets, as of 
 essential 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 
 importance 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 tothe first of the week. As the stress of the law- 
 has from the beginning been shown to lie on the propor- 
 tion of time between the working days and the day of 
 rest, themere change of the particular period in the week 
 
84 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV> 
 
 when we celebrate our Sabbath, cannot in itself be con- 
 sidered important. So long as one day is sanctified out 
 of every seven, the purport of the institution is accom- 
 plished. 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 observed the same, 
 or at least considered his six days' work to precede, and 
 not follow his Sabbath, it is important to show the au- 
 thority 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 shall be 
 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 Jew- 
 ish 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 pre- 
 ceding 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 
 attention to several preparatory circumstances in 
 the history of the law of the Sabbath, which lay a-pro- 
 bable ground for the change of the day : and then, se- 
 condly, 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 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 85 
 
 the first institution in Paradise, but is so prominent in 
 the wording of the fourth commandment, and in its dif- 
 ferent repubhcations, as to lay a probable ground for the 
 change of the day of celebration, if any paramount rea- 
 sons 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 the general course of nature, indeed^ labour 
 precedes repose; and in the primitive institution, the day 
 of the Sabbath fell, from the order of creation and the ex- 
 ample 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 foun- 
 dation for the whole. The distribution of the work of 
 creation over six daj^s, marks the reason why the 
 seventh was given to repose : and shows that the es- 
 sence of the institution would be preserved, if after six 
 days of labour, one of rest should succeed. A ccordingly , 
 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 
 seventh.^ 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, v/ith a 
 view to the alteration which the gospel would intro- 
 duce. 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 propor- 
 tion of the days is the essential point. The Christian 
 Sabbath, in the sense of the fourth commandment, is as 
 much the seventh day, as the Jewish Sabbath was the 
 seventh day. It is kept after six days labour, as that 
 was. It is the seventh day, reckoning from the begin- 
 ning of our first working day, as well as their Sabbath 
 was the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of 
 their first working day.^ So, in all the recapitulations 
 
 • Exod. xvi. 22— 31. 
 
 2 *' The fourth commandment does not determine which day of 
 the week we should keep as a Sabbath ; but only that we should 
 
86 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 of the fourth commandment, the substance is the pro- 
 portion of time which we dedicate to God — a seventh 
 portion with respect to the six days' labour — and there- 
 fore the six days' labour are always noted when the 
 seventh is spoken of The day when we begin to com- 
 pute is, abstractedly speaking, of very little consequence. 
 Our Lord's day may be called the seventh in the rela- 
 tion to the six days' work, as it is called the first in re- 
 ference to the Jewish Sabbath which preceded it. This 
 single circumstance clears the whole question. 
 
 2. But there is, in the next place, the highest pro- 
 bability that the exact computation of time from the 
 creation was lost during the bondage of Egypt, 
 and that the Jewish Sabbath was reckoned from some 
 other day — the day of the Egyptian 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 un- 
 written law, closed with centuries of oppression in the 
 Egyptian captivity, had in all probability disturbed 
 the exact reckoning of weeks. An irregular observa- 
 tion of the sacred day had crept in previously — the 
 impossibility of generally celebrating it at all, was 
 doubtless one consequence of their taskmasters' ex- 
 actions ; ' 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 civi- 
 lization, the accurate calculation of festivals, especi- 
 ally when recurring so frequently as every seventh 
 
 keep every seventh day, or one day after six. It says, -^^ix days 
 shalt thou labour, and the seventh thou shalt rest;' which implies 
 no more than that after six days of lalDour, 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 qf such a 
 seventh day as God should appoint, or had appointed."^ — J. Ed' 
 wards, — and so Dean Milner. 
 
 ' Cogitavi in Egypto ubi serviabas, etiam ipso sabbato per vim 
 te esse coactum ad labores. — Manasseh Ben IsraeL on Deut. v. 16. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 87 
 
 day, and admitting of an insensible removal from their 
 position, by changes in the revolutions of the heavenly 
 bodies. The alteration is in such a case slight, and 
 the relative order of things is 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 precisely 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.^ Certain it is that the ten 
 commandments are prefaced with a reason drawn from 
 this great benefit — " I am the Lord thy God which 
 brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
 of bondage. "2 And, what is more important, at the re- 
 capitulation 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 redemp- 
 tion, as if that were the reason and date of the parti- 
 cular 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 expressly appointed to commemorate 
 the mighty deliverance from Egypt. It is probable, 
 therefore, that this was the day whence the new com- 
 putation started. Therefore when the Son of God 
 appeared on earth, and wrought out an eternal re- 
 demption, 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. 
 Tlie Sabbath thus follows the mightiest benefit in each 
 
 ^ J. Mede, Grotius, Abp. Bramhall, J. Edwards, Dean Milner, 
 Scott, all think the reckoning was lost, and was recommenced at 
 the fall of manna, Exodus xvi. And most of them conceive the 
 new computation began from the daj of Egyptian redemption. 
 2Exod. XX. 11. 3Deut. V. 15. 
 
88 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 dispensation. In the patriarchal, creation; in the 
 Mosaical, the temporal deliverance from Egypt; 
 in the Christian, the spiritual redemption from sin 
 and death by 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 
 and universality of the gospel dispensation 
 would lead us to think that the same principle would 
 be carried on, that is, 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 appli- 
 cable to all nations, in all ages, and in all parts of the 
 world. While men were few, 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 pro- 
 bably was during the bondage of Egypt, as soon as 
 the new era was once determined on. But consider 
 how different is the nature of the case under the gos- 
 pel. Here you have not a distinct line of patriarchs, 
 or a favoured nation under a theocracy, but a dis- 
 pensation 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 improve- 
 ment. An appointed season dependent on a succes- 
 sion 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 naviga- 
 tors 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 
 
SERjM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 89 
 
 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 labour there should succeed one day 
 of rest, without obliging men in all the different regions 
 of th'e earth, and under all circumstances, with reckon- 
 ing 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. 
 
 Now 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 observance, to the Christian, would fall 
 in with this design, and expedite the practical execu- 
 tion 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 honour our Lord's 
 accomplishment 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 proportion of time, being always pre- 
 served inviolate — I should conceive such a statement 
 would be satisfactory. Nor do I think anything would 
 have been objected to such a statement, if the Jewish 
 seventh-day Sabbath had not been assumed to be the 
 same with the seventh-day Sabbath in paradise. This 
 confuses the subject. It seems to make the seventh 
 day a fundamental matter ; whilst the real substance of 
 the institution, the measure of working and resting 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 Saviour 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 acci- 
 dental importance attached to it. But we proceed. 
 
90 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 4. The word of phophecy, again, seems to afFord 
 such intimations as are quite consistent with a change 
 of the day of the Sabbath. This is all we might expect 
 during the prevalence of the Mosaical economy. The 
 " old creation," says the Prophet — the state of things 
 under the law, shall not be remembered, but the " new 
 creation,^' the state of things under the gospel, shall ; ^ 
 that is, as we may probably deduce, the Christian 
 church shall have her ministers, solemnities, sabbaths, 
 and holy ordinances, all referring directly to the Mes- 
 siah ; a new dispensation shall be introduced, in which 
 the alteration shall be so great and extensive as to be 
 fitly compared to " new heavens and a new earth ;" 
 which shall efface the memory of the old. Such is the 
 import of the whole passage : " 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."2 
 
 But a passage predicting the change of the day of 
 celebrating the Sabbath, or, at the least,]giving an inti- 
 mation 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- 
 lous in our eyes." ^ For 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. Whila^hrist 
 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 corner."* This was a great and marvellous 
 act. Now the day when this was done, as we are next 
 
 * Probably included in the expression in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, " The world to come,'' ii. 5. — So the best Commentators. 
 ^ Isa. Ixv. 17 -, Ixvi. 22, 23 ; and J. Edwards on them. 
 3 V. 22, 23. ■• Dr. Lightfoot and J. Edwards. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 91 
 
 taught, is appointed 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." ^ 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 distinguished 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 prediction is more 
 probably thus interpreted, 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 inti- 
 mation, 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 promul- 
 gation of the gospel. We dwell not, however, on this 
 topic. It may or may not have weight. A further 
 one has greater force. 
 
 5. In the next and most perfect dispensation of the 
 divine grace — the gospel — such a complete revolu- 
 tion ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE IN THE WHOLE STATE 
 
 OF THE CHURCH, that it sccms not unnatural that so 
 important a branch of religious observances as the Sab- 
 bath, should follow the new order of things. This 
 remark gives colour to the intimations of the prophetic 
 word which we have just noted, and falls in entirely 
 with the previous topics, the preparatory 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 
 
 ' V. 24. 2 y_ 19^ 20. 
 
92 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 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 co- 
 venant, 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 TRIUMPH of the Mediator in his resur- 
 rection. 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." 2 Not one 
 thing only is changed, but all. Accordingly, " the 
 former things shall not be remembered nor come to 
 mind." 3 The Sabbath, then, probably follows the new 
 course. And this appears the more likely, from the cir- 
 cumstance of the new creation being described as lead- 
 ing to the rest of the Mediator after he had completed 
 it, even as the old creation led to the rest of the Al- 
 mighty 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. This is not the occasion for entering 
 into the details of the apostle's argument on this sub- 
 ject.^ We observe only, that as at the first creation the 
 
 ' Heb. vii. 12. 2 ^^^^ ^ jq^ 3 jg^. ixv. 17- 
 
 ■* Let the whole passage be attentively read. I insert a few 
 words of parenthesis, to convey the interpretation of the best com- 
 mentators. " 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,) "tcny 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," 
 (Psalm xcv. 11,) "If they shall enter into my rest. There reraain- 
 eth 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 entered into his rest," (even Jesus our Lord, the author 
 of all this neAv creation) " he also hath ceased from his own works" 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 93 
 
 Almighty was pleased to work six days, and then rested 
 on the seventh, in order to exhibit an instructive lesson 
 for man's imitation ; and as his resting on the seventh 
 day was a sufficient intimation of the precise day of 
 Sabbath appointed for man : so in the second creation 
 Christ wrought his work of restoration and redemption 
 during his ministry, and then rested and was refreshed 
 from that kind of work by which he laid the founda- 
 tions of " the new heavens and the new earth ; and thus 
 he marked out precisely the new day of sabbatising un- 
 der 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 
 peculiar 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, proposed to man a rest for himself in 
 heaven, and appointed a Sabbath as a remembrance of 
 the one and the pledge of the other. The Mosaical dis- 
 pensation was founded in the redemption from Egypt, 
 when God again ceased from his mighty works of 
 forming and creating a people ;^ proposed a rest with 
 
 (of redemption and new creation) "as God did from his," (of the 
 old creation.) " Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest," 
 (of heaven, of which our Christian weekly Sabbath is a pledge and 
 foretaste,) "lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief," 
 Dr. J. Owen, J. Edwards, Dwight, Scott, Arch. Pott, &c., concur 
 in the above interpretation j which is, as I think, the only one 
 that can stand. 
 
 ^ " I'his people I have formed for myself." — Isaiah xliii. 2. And 
 so in many other passages, the Mosaical covenant is termed a crea- 
 tion, the work of God's hands, &c. It is worth observing also, that 
 the last glorious state of the church terminating in the rest of hea- 
 ven, or perhaps the heavenly state itself, is described in the Apoca- 
 lypse under the same image ; " And I saw a ncAv heaven and a 
 new earth." — Rev. xxi. ], — Owen, Edwards, &c. 
 
94 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 himself to man, and gave him the pledge of it in tlie 
 Jewish Sabbath. The gospel dispensation is founded 
 in the new creatfon wrought by the Lord Christ, who 
 redeems, renews, and writes his law upon the heart of 
 man by his Spirit, and introduces a new and more spiri- 
 tual state of religion. From this creating work Christ 
 ceased at his resurrection ; he was then refreshed in the 
 view of his works, and proposed his own rest to be called 
 after his name, as the sign of the new covenant and the 
 pledge of the heavenly rest (the sabbatising, keeping of 
 a Sabbath) which remains to his people. And as 
 the day of repose followed certainly the precise order of 
 working and of rest in the first dispensation, and was 
 altered, as we probably conclude, in the Mosaical, to 
 follow the day of redemption ; so in the last and most 
 perfect dispensation, it is again changed as to the precise 
 time of its celebration, to dignify the day of spiritual re- 
 demption ; and thus the patriarchal and Jewish Sabbath 
 become the Lord's day.^ 
 
 We can suppose nothing more fitting, more neces- 
 sary, so to speak, than so slight and yet significant a 
 change! What I have we a new church, the gospel ; 
 new ordinances in that church, ceremonial worship taken 
 down, and spiritual set up ; new sacraments, baptism 
 and the Lord's supper, for circumcision and the pass- 
 sever ; a new Mediator, Christ instead of Moses ; a new 
 covenant, founded on the better promises of the gospel ; 
 a new command of that covenant, to love one another ; 
 a new object of divine worship and confidence, the Lord 
 Jesus ; — in a word, have we all things new ; and have 
 we not a new Sabbath fitted for all this new creation ? - 
 Yes, the Jewish rest is, under the gospel, The lord's 
 
 DAY. 
 
 But even on this we do not insist ; we have merely no- 
 ticed the prophetical intimations and the entire change 
 in the state of the church under the gospel, to show 
 that they are consistent with the alteration of the day 
 of Sabbath rest — and perhaps were preparing for it. 
 
 ' Owen. 2 Lightfoot. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 95 
 
 6. One more indication must be noticed, which binds 
 together all the preceding. The claims which 
 Christ advanced during his ministry, of le- 
 gislating FOR THE Sabbath, as its sovereign 
 AND Lord, lays a probable ground for the alteration of 
 the day of its observance, and even intimates that some 
 such change would take place. One of the most striking 
 of these claims is in the passage which we formerly con- 
 sidered.i Jesus there asserts, first, the grand moral end 
 of the Sabbath — then cautions us against the perverse 
 traditions which would render man a slave to the exter- 
 nal forms of that institution — and lastly, draws this em- 
 phatic and oracular conclusion, "Therefore the son 
 OF MAN IS Lord also of the Sabbath," exalted as 
 that appointment confessedly is, most ancient in time, 
 first in dignity, most universal as to extent, most durable 
 and permanent in point of continuance — he is Lord even 
 of the Sabbath, to claim it as his own, to change the 
 day of its celebration, to fix on it his own name, to 
 sweep away human traditions, and re-establish it in all 
 its original simplicity and compassionate aspect upon 
 man. Yes, Jesus is the " Lord of the Sabbath ;" — 
 " the heir of all things," " the first-born from the dead," 
 the " head over all things to the church," " the prince 
 of life," the "only begotten of the Father," the "Lord 
 of all." He is not, like Moses, " a servant," but has 
 power "in his own house," as a " Son," to dispose of 
 the affairs of that house as he may please.^ 
 
 With this high claim accords another which he 
 made on the very same occasion — the defence of his 
 disciples when accused wrongfully of having violated 
 the Sabbath. "But I say unto you, in this place 
 IS ONE greater than THE TEMPLE,"^ glorious as it 
 is, surrounded with tokens of the divine majesty, the seat 
 of religious ordinances, and the place of the immediate 
 manifestations of the Deity. " There is one greater 
 than the temple,"— which is a figure merely of my hu- 
 man nature, and derives all its dignity from the indwell- 
 
 ' Mark ii. 27, 28, Sermon III. 
 
 2 Heb. iii. 5, 6. ^ Matt. xii. 6. 
 
96 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 ing DIety. " There is one greater than the temple," — 
 and therefore one authorized to regulate the service of 
 the temple, and fix the day of religious assemblies in 
 his church. 
 
 Once more, when accused of the Jews, most probably 
 before the Sanhedrim, on the very same subject — a sup- 
 posed violation of the Sabbath — how sublime is his 
 reply ! " My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
 woRK."i What a claim is implied in these words! The 
 interruption, indeed, given by the Jews, upon his utter- 
 ing this language of Deity, leaves us in some uncertainty 
 as to the precise import of the argument ; but if it be 
 considered as only an assumption of divine operations 
 generally, it is still conclusive as to his power over the 
 Sabbath and the Jewish corruptions of the law of it. 
 But if we refer it, with Dr. Lightfoot, to his working 
 like his Father, who ever acts by his providence, even 
 upon the Sabbath, though he rested from the works of 
 creation on that day, and blessed and sanctified it ; the 
 argument of our Lord is more direct to his immediate 
 purpose. It then imports, ' As my Father, though he 
 hath ceased from the act of creation, worketh still in all 
 succeeding time, the Sabbath not excepted, in sustain- 
 ing man, rescuing him from danger, recovering liim from 
 sickness, sending him rain from heaven and fruitful 
 showers, causing his sun to rise upon him ; so I, the 
 Son of God, work also in carrying on my providential 
 acts continually, and even on the Sabbath ; fulfilling 
 my divine mission, healing diseases when occasions 
 present themselves, proving the truth of my doctrine 
 by enabling an impotent man to bear away his couch 
 before my assembled adversaries, vindicating ttie Sab- 
 bath from unauthorised impositions, claiming it as my 
 proper institution, and fixing the day of its observance 
 after my own pleasure.' 
 
 Here, then, are laid grounds for the alteration of the 
 day. What more appropriate than the Lord's dav, 
 to mark the authority of " the Lord of the Sabbath ?"' 
 
 * John V. 1 7. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 97 
 
 " If one greater than the temple be here," what more 
 becoming than that the worship of the New Testament 
 temple should follow his resurrection ? If as " the 
 Father worketh hitherto, so he works," what more natu- 
 ral than that he should display his power in making the 
 Sabbath his own, working on it his deeds of mercy and 
 grace, and fixing it in his own kingdom as a trophy of 
 his resurrection ? 
 
 Yes ; these indications are almost sufficient for the 
 point in hand. We may even now venture to profess and 
 say, " The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord our 
 Redeemer ; the Lord Jesus hath blessed the first day 
 and hallowed it :'* even as the ancient church professed 
 and said, " The Lord hath blessed the seventh day and 
 hallowed it — the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
 Lord our God." In a word, the last declaration which 
 our Saviour made in commissioning his apostles after his 
 resurrection, includes an unlimited power over his 
 church, and therefore the authority of changing the day 
 of celebrating its weekly rest : " all power is given 
 me in heaven and earth ; go ye, therefore, and teach all 
 nations — teaching them to observe all things, whatso- 
 ever I COMMAND Y0U."i 
 
 We proceed, then, to consider, 
 
 II. The manner in which the change of the Sab- 
 bath from the last to the first day of the week, was 
 gradually introduced by the divine authority 
 of our lord and his apostles. 
 
 After such preparatory indications of the transfer of 
 the day of rest, and such arrangements, from the very be- 
 ginning, to admit of it, much will not be necessary to 
 show the divine authority of it, when actually intro- 
 duced. For the change being in itself subordinate, and 
 in no way touching the substance of the command, nay, 
 being agreeable to the very wording of that command, 
 we want nothing but sufficient intimations of the will of 
 God, to warrant our compliance with the practice of the 
 
 » Matt, xxviii. 18—20. 
 
98 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 universal church from the days of the apostles. When 
 an objector says, he requires an express injunction, in 
 precise and formal terms, for the observation of the Lord's 
 day, he speaks without consideration. If he requires an 
 express injunction in precise and formal terms for the 
 religious dedication of one day in seven to God, we have 
 it in the institution in Paradise, and in the words of the 
 fourth commandment. But if he requires such an express 
 and formal injunction for a subordinate change in the 
 day of the week when that Sabbath should be kept, we 
 reply, that the case does not require it. If God had so 
 made our faculties, that we were not capable of receiving 
 intimations of his will, even in matters not affecting the 
 substance of a commandment, in any other way than by 
 anew and express injunction, tliere would be some rea- 
 son to require one. But God hath given us such under- 
 standings, that we are capable of ascertaining his will in 
 such cases, in another manner. If God deals with us, 
 then, agreeably to our nature, and in a way suitable to 
 our capacities, it is enough : and he may expect our no- 
 tice and observance, and does expect our notice and ob- 
 servance, in the same manner as if he had made known 
 his will in express terms.i In a case, then, like the pre- 
 sent, we want no direct precept. The perpetual moral 
 obligation of giving one day to God, after every six days' 
 labour, is confessed. The institution has been preserved 
 on this footing through every dispensation. It is honour- 
 ed and left in all its force by Christ and his apostles. 
 There is no room then for a new precept, as for a duty 
 unknown. On a point not in itself essential to the com- 
 mand, the tacit example of our Lord — the time of the 
 fulfilment of the chief promise of the New Testament — 
 the doctrine and conduct of the inspired apostles, — the 
 events in providence which swept away the Jewish polity 
 and Sabbath,— the universal practice of the Christian 
 church in the primitive and all following ages, — and the 
 uninterrupted blessing of God resting from their time to 
 the present on the transferred day ; — these constitute suf- 
 
 ' J. Echvards, 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 99 
 
 ficient intimations of the will of God. ^Ye deduce the 
 divine authority of the change of the weekly rest from 
 the Jewish to the Lord's day, as certainly from such in- 
 timations, as we deduce the divine authority of the essen- 
 tial duty of a weekly rest itself, from the transactions 
 in Paradise and the formal and express injunctions of 
 the moral law. 
 
 1. Our Saviour, then, after his passion, began to 
 INTRODUCE the actual change tacitly and gently, by his 
 rising from the dead on that day. The first day of 
 
 THE WEEK IS THE DAY OF HIS RESURRECTION. In the 
 
 eternal councils of the Almighty was this, and no other, 
 day fixed. The whole arrangement of the institution of the 
 passover had from the first a respect to his great fulfil- 
 ment of this typical sacrifice. Accordingly it is repeatedly 
 and emphatically noted by the evangelists as tlie precise 
 day of his conquest over the grave. He foretold it him- 
 self. The Jews were aware of the expected fact, and pre- 
 pared, as they could, against it. His appearances after 
 his resurrection, marked the day which was to become 
 the Lord's. Having risen on that blessed morn, he ma- 
 nifested himself four times before its close, to his disci- 
 ples ; and thus celebrated, or rather constituted, the 
 FIRST Christian Sabbath, on its new day of being 
 observed, by his own presence. All the evangelists seem 
 to delight in marking that it was on the first day of the 
 week, and no other, that these transactions took place. 
 St. Matthew tells us that at the very dawn of the first 
 DAY," the two Marys hiid the early tidings of the resur- 
 rection of their Lord. St. Mark informs us, that " very 
 early in the morning,'' that glorious event occurred. St. 
 Luke relates the same, with the same notification of its 
 being on the first day of the week. St. John bears 
 testimony, that " on the first day of the week cometh 
 Mary, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre,' and 
 there witnesseth the first manifestation of her risen Re- 
 deemer.^ The second appearance, to the three women, 
 was vouchsafed the same day." The journey to Emmaus, 
 
 1 John XX. 19. 2 jyjatt. xxviii. 9—11. 
 
 F 2 
 
100 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 and the being " known in the breaking of bread," was 
 the third visit. And the fourth closed the first Christian 
 Sabbath. It was made to the assembled disciples, who 
 were already convened on that day, ready to begin, as it 
 were, that joyful season, the moment their Lord should 
 appear, to open its solemnities. Accordingly, " the same 
 day, at evening, being the first day of the week, 
 when the doors were shut, where the disciples were as- 
 sembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in 
 the midst, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. 
 Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord !"i 
 Their joy in the resurrection of their Master now began 
 the Lord's day ; to mark out and separate which more 
 distinctly, the intervening week is allowed to pass without 
 any repetition of his visits. But lo, after six days' work, 
 the day of rest returns, and the second Lord's day 
 is honoured likewise with the presence of Christ ; the 
 evangelist especially noting the time of this manifestation, 
 which is not done as to any other, by any of the evange- 
 lists. " And after eight days again, "^ ^the Jews includ- 
 ing the portion of the days from which, and to which, they 
 reckon) " his disciples were within, and Thomas with 
 them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood 
 in the midst." " This second meeting on the same day 
 of the week," says Paley, "has all the appearance of 
 an appointment, a design to meet on that particular day." 
 Nothing is said as to the time on which the following 
 manifestations were made ; nor do we want them. They 
 would have introduced the new day, not so gently and 
 gradually, as we shall see it was our Saviour's intention 
 to introduce it. It now, as it were, insinuates itself by 
 the very circumstances in which the apostleir^^were 
 placed. The Lord of the Sabbath was lying in the grave 
 on the precise day of the Jewish rest. It would have 
 been impossible for the mourning disciples to have cele- 
 brated the praises of the great Creator, of the Redeemer 
 from Egyptian bondage, of the God who had promised, 
 and had given them, the Messiah and Saviour, whilst 
 
 » John XX. 19, 20. 2 jo^n xx. 26. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 101 
 
 that Messiah arid Saviour was in the tomb, and all the 
 prospects of his kingdom were shrouded with the dark- 
 ness of death. That last Jewish Sabbath was no Sab- 
 bath to them ; but a day of sorrow, dejection, anguish, 
 consternation. The spouse could not rejoice whilst the 
 bridegroom lay buried in the grave. But when the 
 Lord arose on the first day of the week, then, and not 
 before, were " the disciples glad." Then did their 
 Sabbath begin ; the necessity of the case changed the 
 day of peaceful happy rest in the worship and praise of 
 God, from the Jewish Sabbath to the Lord's day. The 
 celebration was not retarded, not forgotten. The old 
 day was buried with Christ — the new arose with him. 
 He had in the old creation rested (as being the author, 
 one with the Father, of that six days' work) on the 
 seventh day and sanctified it ; but now, as the author of 
 the new work of creation, being detained in the prison 
 of the grave on the old seventh day, he takes another 
 day to rest in, the following or first of the week, which 
 thus becomes the Lord's day. Everything essential in 
 the command goes on as it did ; the non-essential point 
 of the precise time is changed, or rather delayed, a single 
 day, to wait for its rising Master, and assume a new 
 dignity, and be a memorial of the manifestations of a 
 new and greater creation. 
 
 2. The first day, thus begun to be introduced, is next 
 marked by the gift of the great promise of the 
 dispensation which it was to characterise. This will 
 demand only a moment's notice. The day of Pentecost 
 has been abundantly shown by learned men i to have 
 fallen on the Lord's day. The disciples are assembled 
 with one accord in one place — the usual place of prayer: 
 " when suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of 
 a mighty rushing wind ; and they were filled with the 
 Holy Ghost." 2 By this gift the gospel church is 
 first erected, and its heralds endued with power 
 from on high. Thus the great distinguishing benefit of 
 
 ' Lightfoot, D wight, &c. ^ Acts ii. 2. 
 
102 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 the New Testament being vouchsafed on the Lord's day, 
 confirms the newly-instituted season, which is to be 
 lienceforth known as the Christian Sabbath. The Holy 
 Ghost descended upon it. The author of the '' new 
 creation " had already arisen upon the same day. We 
 join then these topics of joy to the original praises due 
 for the glories of the first creation ; and our Lord's day 
 is dedicated to our triune God and Saviour as manifest 
 in the tri-unity of persons — it is dedicated to God the 
 Father, as the day on which the praises of the most 
 noble creatures for their first production are offered — 
 it is dedicated to God the Son, whose resurrection this 
 day was the new creation of the world— it is dedicated 
 to God the Holy Ghost, who on this day descended 
 visibly upon the apostles, as if he would proclaim aloud 
 that he hallowed it unto himself ^ The gift of the 
 Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, honours and marks 
 out the Lord's day. 
 
 S. The DOCTRINE and conduct of the apos- 
 tles will, in the next place, be found to bring in more 
 decidedly, yet still tenderly and gradually, the new day 
 of Sabbath. 
 
 They were endued with the Holy Spirit, granted at 
 this very season, on purpose to found the gospel dispen- 
 sation, and settle its order and worship. The conduct of 
 these holy men, who were commissioned and delegated 
 as ambassadors for Christ, has a divine authority. They 
 teach indeed by their writings, they teach by their ser- 
 mons and instructions ; but they teach also by tiieir con- 
 duct and example. They had the infallible guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit. They delivered nothing to be observed 
 in the worship of God, but what has the same force, as if 
 delivered by Christ himself — it proceeds indeedHrom 
 Christ himself In a matter of subordinate regulation, 
 when the substance of a command has been known from 
 the creation of man, their intimations are abundantly 
 sufficient; just as their devout and detailed instruc- 
 tions are indispensable on important and fundamental 
 
 * Archbishop Bramhall. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 103 
 
 points of doctrine or practice. " If men will presume," 
 says Baxter, " that apostles filled with the Spirit, ap- 
 pointed the Christian Sabbath without the Spirit, they 
 may question any chapter or verse of the New Testa- 
 ment." 
 
 We have their testimony, then, for nearly sixty years 
 recorded in the inspired pages ; and this incidentally, 
 and in a manner which supposes the change from (he 
 Jewish to the Christian Sabbath to be known and re- 
 ceived in the churches. Thus, in two references made 
 after an interval of nearly thirty years from the resur- 
 rection, the observance of the first day of the week was 
 so far established even in the remotest places, that the 
 sacred writers speak of it as a matter familiar and cus- 
 tomary. "We cametoTroas,"saithSt.Lukeinthe ActSj 
 " where we abode seven days. And upon the first day 
 of the week, when the disciples came together to break 
 bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the 
 morrow."^ Here on the first day of the week is a meet- 
 ing, not of a few friends, but of the whole body of the dis- 
 ciples, as a Christian church, at a great distance from Je- 
 rusalem. It is spoken of as a practice already established 
 and well known — it is an accustomed meeting, not upon 
 an extraordinary summons. Paul preaches to them be- 
 ing thus assembled together. The zealous apostle 
 doubtless taught privately on other days : but it was 
 on the first day of the week, when the whole church 
 was accustomed to meet, according to their duty, 
 for the celebration of Christian ordinances, that he 
 preached solemnly and publicly to them. It even 
 seems that he waited the arrival of the day— for he 
 was ready to depart, and did depart on the morrow 
 of it — but he would not proceed on his journey till 
 after the first day of the week, and the instruction and 
 ordinances of that sacred season had taken place. We 
 thus learn that already the same, or nearly the same, 
 mode of celebrating the Sabbath was observed as in mo- 
 dern times — public assemblies — the preaching of God's 
 holy word — the administration of the sacraments — with 
 
 ^ Acts XX. 6,7. 
 
104 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [ SERM. IV. 
 
 public prayer and praise, and acts of charity to the 
 poor, constituted the Christian worship. 
 
 At the same, or nearly the same period, St. Paul, in 
 his Epistle to the Corinthian church, incidentally men- 
 tions the observation of the Lord's day as a matter of 
 course, not to give directions about the day itself, but 
 in order to enjoin certain additional duties which were 
 to form an important part of the sanctification of it. 
 " Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I 
 have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so 
 do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one 
 of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, 
 that there be no gatherings when I come.''^ It hence 
 appears that the constant day of the church's assem- 
 bling was fixed and well known — it was the first day. 
 The apostle, therefore, merely directs the discharge 
 of an especial duty upon it, in addition to the ordinary 
 ones of prayer, breaking of bread, and preaching the 
 gospel. He directs them to charitable contributions; 
 and he directs this in a manner which implies that it 
 should be done on the first day of the week and no 
 other, as if no other time would do so well as that, or 
 was so proper a season for such a work. He notices 
 also, that he had given the same order to other churches, 
 especially to the churches in Galatia, though di- 
 vided by the sea, and lying at a great distance from 
 Corinth. Thus the Lord's day was generally acknow- 
 ledged. It was celebrated by Christians, we see, be- 
 fore the New Testament was written, and is referred to 
 in the books of it as already established. Indeed, the 
 obedience to the gospel, and to its ordinances, began 
 first upon the authority which the apostles received/from 
 Christ, and the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 
 Thus the churches were formed, and the doctrine and 
 sacraments admitted. And thus also the Lord's day 
 was sanctified, as appears from the casual references 
 made in the history and epistles of their founders. 
 
 But we go on. At the close of the first century, and 
 after an interval of thirty or forty years from the time 
 
 ' 1 Cor. xvi. ],2. 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 105 
 
 when the above passages were written, the words of our 
 text were uttered by the beloved apostle — the sole sur- 
 vivor of the apostolic college, in his extreme old age, 
 and when about to record the revelations made to him 
 by the Spirit. This brings down the direct scriptural 
 evidence to the close of the first century.^ " I was in 
 THE SPIRIT ON THE lord's DAY," is the brief and 
 pregnant expression. He merely denotes in this M^ay 
 the time when the revelations of the Spirit were made 
 to him, by the mention of a day, the appellation of which 
 was well known throughout the Christian churches. It 
 is no new appellation, or he would not thus incidentally 
 have introduced it. A new name would have created 
 surprise, not communicated information. By the Lord's 
 day was undoubtedly meant the first day of the week, 
 for we find no footsteps of any distinction of days which 
 could entitle any other to that appellation.- Now if this 
 be so ; if sixty or seventy years after the resurrection, 
 and when the destruction of Jerusalem had made way 
 for the full developement of the gospel, the first day of 
 the week is called the Lord's day, even as St. Paul 
 calls the Eucharist the Lord's supper — if the one be 
 the memorial of the Lord's resurrection, as the other is 
 of his death and passion, — then we have the most sa- 
 tisfactory evidence of the apostolic usage, and therefore 
 of the divine authority of the change of the Jewish into 
 the Christian Sabbath. 
 
 4. But the events of God's wonderful provi- 
 dence, which swept away the Jewish polity and Sab- 
 bath, completed the change which had thus gradually 
 been introduced, and had spread so widely. To avoid 
 needlessly exasperating the prejudices of the Jewish con- 
 verts, and the malice of the great body of that nation, 
 the transfer of the day of the Sabbath was made for a 
 long time silently and gradually. Our Lord lays the 
 foundation of the change in his example, and in the 
 choice of the day for conferring the great gift of the New 
 
 ' About A. D. 96. =^ Paley. 
 
 f5 
 
106 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 Testament. The apostles follow his example; and, as 
 we have seen, the practice had become general within 
 thirty years from the crucifixion. But we have no ex- 
 press prohibition of the Jewish, nor induction of the 
 Christian Sabbath. It was a matter subordinate, and 
 was now to make its way by the force of circumstances 
 and the tacit influence of the apostles' doctrine. On the 
 question of the Jewish ceremonies indeed controversy 
 arose— circumcision and keeping the law of Moses were 
 made the occasion of supplanting the great doctrine of 
 justification. But where no dispute 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 
 children." The Jewish converts were allowed to observe 
 the Mosaic Sabbath. The Gentiles, who had previousl}^ 
 celebrated their pagan festivals, renounced these on their 
 conversion, for the holy rest of the Lord's day. They 
 spontaneously kept the Christian Sabbath as a natural 
 duty, a 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 Christian churches. So 
 long as the Jewish services were neither attacl^ nor 
 neglected, they made no objection to that of the Chris- 
 tian church. Thus the new ordinances grew into use, 
 veneratioi!, and 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 simple faith in Christ for justification, the minds 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 107 
 
 of the Jewish believers were prepared to submit. Thus 
 things continued for nearly forty 3'ears after the resur- 
 rection. 
 
 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 provi- 
 dence. What wisdom and consideration, then, appears 
 in the conduct 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 (jod, 
 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 prejudices. They 
 cheerfully met the Jewish assemblies on the seventh 
 day, for the purpose 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- 
 lievers, if their Sabbath, their golden day, one of their 
 chief 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 
 polity of the Jewish people. They waited therefore. 
 They left the Jewish Sabbath gradually to expire, and 
 the Christian to succeed, without any express com- 
 mand, or any attempt at a violent and sudden transfer. 
 
 After the destruction of Jerusalem, the case became 
 different. 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 
 judicial blindness which the rejection of their Messiah 
 had brought upon them. Their hatred of Christianity 
 
108 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 was infuriate. Christians then must now openly sepa- 
 rate from the communion of a repudiated church. The 
 Jewish Sabbath, the most visible character of their wor- 
 ship, 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. Christians unite the two. Their 
 Lord's day is an open protest against atheism and idolatry 
 on the one hand, and against 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' labour — " 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 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 au- 
 thority for any change ; especially for one immaterial 
 in itself, and entirely consistent with the fundamental 
 law of the institution. 
 
 3. But it may naturally be asked, what say eccle- 
 siastical HISTORIANS — what the apostolic Fathers ? 
 Do 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."i 
 
 ' Bishop Andiews on the Ten Commandments — a work of in- 
 
SERM, IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 109 
 
 Ignatius, a companion of the apostle St. John, 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 begin- 
 ning of the second century, tells us, " On the day called 
 Sunday is an assembly of all who live in the city or 
 country, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writ- 
 ings 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." 
 
 Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, who had been the dis- 
 ciple of St. John himself, says, " On the Lord's day 
 every one of us Christians keeps the Sabbath, medi- 
 tating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God.'' 
 Tertullian, at the close of the second century, asserts 
 it to be " the holy day of the Christian church assem- 
 blies, and holy worship" — that " every eighth day is 
 the Christian's festival" — "kept as a day of rejoicing.'' 
 Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in the time of Irenaeus, 
 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 vear ^63, forbad 
 Christians to rest from labour 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 time it began to be celebrated as the Chris- 
 tian's festival." 
 
 Epiphanius, in his sermon upon the day of Christ's 
 resurrection, has this expression, " This is the day which 
 God blessed and sanctified, because in it he ceased 
 from all his labours which he had perfectly accom- 
 
 comparable value — from which, and from Baxter and Dwight's 
 most able treatises, I collect my testimonies. 
 
110 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 plished, 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 Constantine, 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, ac- 
 cording to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, and of 
 the apostles thereby directed, that on the sacred day 
 wherein our own integrity was restored, all do rest and 
 cease from labour ; that neither husbandmen nor others 
 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 trutli of grace, bound to honour that Jay which 
 the Lord himself hath honoured, and hath therein de- 
 livered us from dishonour and from death ? Are we 
 not bound to keep it singular and inviolable, well con- 
 tenting ourselves with so liberal a grant of the rest, and 
 not encroaching upon that one day which God hath 
 chosen to his own honour ? Were it not reckless neg- 
 lect 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 
 especial 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 
 Christian worship, entirely accords with our genera]^ tes- 
 timony : " Tliey are accustomed to meet on a stated day 
 before light, and to sing amongst themselves hymns to 
 Christ, as to a God." Lideed, the celebration of the 
 Lord's day was so notorious even to the Heathens them- 
 selves, that it was ever a question of theirs to the martyrs, 
 "Dominicum servasti?" *' Do you keep Sunday?" 
 
 * In Hooker. 
 
SERM. IV ] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. Ill 
 
 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 bless- 
 ing WHICH has attended THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH, 
 
 and which attends it now?i Why should I call to your 
 memory all the conversions which have crowned the 
 l.ord's day during eighteen centuries, in every part of" 
 the world ? The whole church has been built up upon 
 this divinely-transferred season — the whole church has 
 been enlarged, comforted, sanctified on it. If the primi- 
 tive Christians were mistaken in 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, dur- 
 ing the whole period of the Christian church. But the 
 idea is too absurd. For when we consider the compara- 
 tive non-im.portance in itself, of the particular day in the 
 week on which we keep the Sabbath, supposing the por- 
 tion 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 pro- 
 bable ground for the change; and when to these we add 
 the gradual but decisive manner in which that change 
 was introduced, 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 eccle- 
 siastical 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, there- 
 fore, which has actually attended, and is actually at- 
 tending, 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. 
 Under the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, the Sab- 
 bath was considered as following the other days. Under 
 
 ' Dr. D wight urges this consideration with great force. 
 
112 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [sERM. IV. 
 
 the Christian it precedes. Under the former economies, 
 creation and the redemption from Egypt were the great- 
 est benefits conferred upon man. Under the Christian, 
 the spiritual redemption — the resurrection of Christ — -. 
 the new 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 dispensations, the proportion of time dedi- 
 cated to the immediate service of God, in which the 
 substance of the command 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 en- 
 force 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 pro- 
 gress. The objections have not only been overcome, but 
 turned into additional confirmations. 1. We have seen 
 that from the creation to the rest of eternity, a day of 
 weekly repose and religious worship has been appointed 
 for man. 2, We have seen the six days' work laid out, 
 and the seventh day's refreshment enforced by the Al- 
 mighty; first in his own example, and then by his com- 
 mand. S. We have discovered the traces of this most 
 ancient of institutions during the patriarchal ages. 4. 
 After the redemption from Egypt we perceived its re- 
 enactment before the law of ceremonies; and its inser- 
 tion in the moral law, in common with the other primary 
 duties of a responsible creature. 5. It enters the Mo- 
 saical economy, not as belonging to it, but as springing, 
 with many other ordinances, from the patriarchal church. 
 As it preceded the existence of the ceremoniaPdispen- 
 sation, so it survived its extinction. 6. Even during its 
 passage through the parenthetical and temporary eco- 
 nomy, we saw how it lifted up itself on high, above all 
 mere figures and ceremonies. 7. The Saviour appears 
 and reverences, honours, distinguishes the Sabbath by 
 his doctrine and his miracles. The ten commandments 
 he recognises without omission or alteration. As the 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 113 
 
 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 obser- 
 vance, and claims to be its ruler, sovereign, and lord. 
 8. The particular day not being of the essence of the law, 
 it is silently introduced. The very nature of the gospel 
 as an universal religion might seem to lead to it. 9. 
 The Lord of the Sabbath, he that was greater than the 
 temple, he that wrought in the works of the new crea- 
 tion as Almighty God had in those of the old, laid the 
 grounds for the change before his passion. 1 0. After his 
 resurrection he established the first day's rest by his gra- 
 cious appearance on that day, and his mission of the 
 Holy Ghost. 11. The apostles follow their Master's ex- 
 ample — they declare in their epistles the Mosaical law 
 abolished. They tolerate indeed, till the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, those who from prejudices and misapprehen- 
 sions kept the Jewish Sabbath, and they attend the syna- 
 gogues in order to meet the Jews and proclaim the gos- 
 pel, but they themselves honour 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 paradisiacal 
 and patriarchal repose transferred to the day of the 
 gospel ; as our pledge and anticipation of the rest and 
 salvation of heaven : and they encourage the universal 
 church to celebrate on that day, not only the glories of 
 creation, the blessings of redemption, and the hopes of a 
 heavenly felicity, but the triumph of the Redeemer, in 
 which they centre, and by which they are secured. 
 
 Let us then, in conclusion — 1 . Adore, in solemn acts 
 of thanksgiving and praise, the wisdom and good- 
 ness OF that God, who, seeing the end from the begin- 
 ning, thus laid out the bountiful provision for man's reli- 
 gious repose in his first creation, carried it through all 
 the dispensations of his mercy, and revived it with so 
 many advantages in the Christian church ! Yes ; we 
 
114 SABBATH TRANSFERRKD FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 magnify thy counsels of grace, thou only wise God; we 
 see something of that manifold and varied wisdom and 
 prudence, w^ith 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 re- 
 pose 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 institudon 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 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 indispensable 
 duties. And in thy gospel, thy wisdom still strikes our 
 view with brighter splendour, 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 be- 
 lieve, that every degree of evidence of the divine origin 
 and permanent obligation of thy day, which is good for 
 us in this imperfect state of trial, has been granted ; 
 that more evidence would probably have been unne- 
 cessary and injurious; and do thou cause us to ac- 
 quiesce 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 ari^h^ ! 
 
 IL But let us notice as a further topic of grateful me- 
 ditation, that the changes in the circumstances of the law 
 of the Sabbath have sprung up from new benefits 
 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 
 alteration is an advance in the developement of redemp- 
 tion on the one hand, and in the uses and importance of 
 
SERM. IV.] SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 115 
 
 the institution on the other. The various modes in which 
 the Sabbath has been presented to man, have not been 
 isolated, much less arbitrary enactments, but economies 
 of mercy, divisions in the grand progress of man's salva- 
 tion 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 attrac- 
 tions, towards the spiritual observation of the sacred sea- 
 son. 1 . 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 gratitude to an all-bountiful Lord. 
 2. The separation of a particular family, to be the reposi- 
 tory of truth, and the confessors of the one living God, 
 amidst surrounding idolatry, brought with it new calls 
 to duty, new reasons of religious worship and praise. 3. 
 The covenant with Abraham, the promise of " the seed 
 in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed," 
 the imputation of faith to him for righteousness, aug- 
 mented the obhgations of sacrifice, of circumcision, and 
 especially of the Sabbath. 4. The establishment of the 
 Mosaic dispensation, on the footing of the redemption 
 from Egypt, and with the promise of the rest in Caanan, 
 placed the Sabbath in yet a new and more inviting light, 
 shed upon it richer grace, made it the commemoration 
 of mightier blessings. 5. The promulgation of the moral 
 law, preceding the dispensation of Moses, but connected 
 with it and subservient to the promises of grace typified 
 in that dispensation, was an inconceivable favour to a 
 wandering and yet responsible creature, uncertain of his 
 duties, surrounded with temptation, lost amidst the cor- 
 ruption and darkness of the world. 6. Every hymn of 
 the royal Psalmist, every prediction of the inspired pro- 
 phets, augmented the materials of sabbath-praise and 
 meditation, and increased the duty of making such a re- 
 turn of gratitude to God. 7. At last, Messiah appears. 
 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. " Whe- 
 ther we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do 
 everything to thy glory." All thy mercies flow together 
 
116 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE [SERM. IV. 
 
 in this THY DAY, which thou hast transferred to be the 
 trophy of thy resurrection. This is the field where all 
 thy blessings 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 Saviour's love that we 
 owe our Christian Sabbath ; it is by this Saviour's 
 death and passion, that its duties are bound upon us ; 
 it is by this Saviour's Spirit, that its consolations are 
 poured into our hearts. 
 
 III. Lastly, mark, I entreat you, that in proportion 
 
 as THE BENEFITS 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 
 publications 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 anostles ; because under his gospel, the love of 
 his person, name, worship, will be a spontaneous and 
 overflowiiig principle, dictated by his Spirit, bursting 
 forth from every heart which is touched with the bene- 
 fits of re lemption, and constituting the very badge and 
 characteristic of his kingdom. 
 
 Here, then, we close the first division of our series of 
 discourses— 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 additional majesty which/infinite 
 grace and love throw around it. Everything illus- 
 trates the duty, and exalts the privilege of that institu- 
 tion, 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. 
 
SERM. IV.] SKVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 117 
 
 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 allowed to harass our minds, or weaken our 
 faith, or contract our obedience. The full autho- 
 rity 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. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SABBATH. 
 
 EZEKIEL XX. 1'2. 
 
 Moreover also 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. 
 
 The divine authority and perpetual obligation of a day 
 of holy rest and religious worship, have been abundantly 
 proved. Everything conspires to impress us with its su- 
 preme importance to man in all ages, and under all dis- 
 pensations. Such is its antiquity, that it was instituted 
 in Paradise ; such its essential moral nature, that it was 
 inserted 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 spiritua- 
 lity, that the holy prophets insist upon it, as a point of 
 fundamental duty, and as about to form a ptirt of the 
 gospel kingdom. Its perpetual force and native majesty 
 are so distinguished, that our Lord, after ^plaining 
 what the comments of the Jewish doctors had obscured, 
 leaves it in more than its original glory ; transfers the 
 day of its celebration 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 church in every age, including the 
 Apostolical, has confessed its claims, and made it the 
 occasion of their delight and joy. 
 
SERM. v.] PRACTICAL DUTIES. 119 
 
 It is, in truth, " a sign of the covenant " between 
 God and man ; a badge of our Christian profession ; the 
 acknowledgment we publicly make of the God who 
 created, and the Saviour 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. What is the sanctification of this 
 holy day which is enjoined under the gospel ? What is 
 the importance of so observing it ? What the evils of 
 the opposite neglect P^ Lastly, What is the necessity 
 of personal and national repentance for our violation of 
 it?" — Grave questions these, and demanding all our at- 
 tention. For why the accumulated proofs of the institu- 
 tion, 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 
 spiritual worship, and holy demands ? If the rest of the 
 Sabbath be admitted to be external and civil merely — 
 if the public duties of the worship of God be confined to 
 a brief and cursory service — if the private hours of the 
 day be spent in worldly, or intellectual, or festive indul- 
 gences — all objections to its authority would cease. 
 Such a Sabbath would be allowed. But if we maintain, 
 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 per- 
 sons, and during the whole of the sacred day — if we 
 maintain that the spirit in which these are to be per- 
 formed is the filial temper of joy and delight in God — if 
 we maintain that the mighty blessings which are to be 
 especially commemorated 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 
 
 ' Sermon VI. ^ Sermon VII. 
 
120 PRACTICAL DUTIES [sERM. V. 
 
 grace, — the means of sanctification exhibited and set 
 before our eyes — then the corrupt reason and perverted 
 affections of man will invent objections to its authority, 
 that they may escape its unwelcome bonds. 
 
 These, then, are the very points which in the present 
 discourse we shall endeavour to illustrate : the great 
 END of the institution — its public and private du- 
 ties — the SPIRIT and 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 Sab- 
 bath. The ceremonial and civil appendages of the Mo- 
 saic 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. Everything in the 
 Christian Sabbath is tender and considerate on the one 
 hand, everything 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 religion. 
 
 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 cor- 
 rupt world. We must rise to the standard of the Sab- 
 bath as set forth In the Bible, not sink the Bible to the 
 level of our wayward passions. This is the second re- 
 mark. The doctrine of the institution, like th^ counsel 
 of a skilful physician, is designed to produce a cure of 
 our moral maladies by wholesome medicines, and to 
 foment the disease by cordials, or hide its worst symp- 
 toms 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 the Spirit teach us what thy revelation 
 really imports, and what the day which Thou callest 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 121 
 
 thine own, is designed to become ! That, knowing our 
 own misery, and receiving with humble faith the re- 
 demption of thy Son, we may delight in the services of 
 that season, which is one chief means of communicat- 
 ing the blessings procured by it to our souls ! 
 
 In considering, then, the practical duties of the 
 Lord's day, we must, 
 
 I. Keep ever in view the great end of the in- 
 stitution — which is to be a visible sign of the cove- 
 nant between God and us, and a principal means of that 
 sanctification 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 
 before, the Lord had declared by Moses, " Verily my 
 Sabbaths 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 institu- 
 tion. It received, indeed, especial sanctions, and was 
 connected with particular observances, during the 
 continuance of the national covenant with the people 
 of Israel. But, as in sanctification the whole 
 human race are interested, the Sabbath becomes a 
 SI ON to every nation in every age, where Revelation 
 with its weekly rest reaches. It is accordingly immedi- 
 ately 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.''2 And so^Moses, after receiving the decalogue, 
 and the two commands which form the summary of it, 
 pronounced in another place, " Thou shalt bind them 
 for a SIGN upon thine hand.''" 
 
 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 
 
 • Exodus xxxi. 13. ^ ver. 15 and 17. ^ Deut. vi. 8. 
 
 G 
 
122 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 be members. We testify our allegiance to the Lord who 
 rose again from the dead " through the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant." The Sabbath, interrupting our secu- 
 lar pm'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 ; and 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 observe this suitable dis- 
 tribution of time as a badge and livery that we wor- 
 ship 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, mortality was 
 swallowed up of life, our Lord rose from the dead, 
 and ceased from his work, and rested and was refreshed ; 
 and that we are the servants and worshippers of that 
 adorable Saviour. 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 wher- 
 ever 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 is the end 
 of the covenant to produce. The expression of the 
 text and of the similar passage just cited, is most re- 
 markable : " 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." ^lat an 
 exalted end and design of the institution ! Sanctifica- 
 tion is the work of God's Holy Spirit by his secret 
 but effectual influences upon the heart, separating 
 man from the love and service of sin, and turning 
 him to God and holiness. The idea is that of set- 
 ting apart, separating, consecrating for certain holy 
 purposes. Thus, when applied to sacred persons, 
 
 » J. Mede. 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 123 
 
 times, services, garments, buildings, it imports the sepa- 
 ration of them from profane uses, and the dedication of 
 them to the honour of God. So the Sabbath was in 
 paradise sanctioned by the Almighty, that is, separated 
 from ordinary employments, and set apart for the service 
 and worship of God. And how important is the thought, 
 that the design of the Almighty in sanctifying and hal- 
 lowing a day of Sabbath, was, that man, his moral and 
 accountable creature, might be sanctified and dedicated 
 by means of it — that the external consecration 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 
 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 spi- 
 ritual and accountable powers should be especially exer- 
 cised — when his relation to God, his dependence 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 sanc- 
 tification is, who the great God is, to whose service we 
 are to be devoted, what that Creator and Redeemer 
 claims of us who on this day rose from the dead, what 
 are the terms of that covenant of which he is the Media- 
 tor and Lord. 
 
 Even before the fall, man in paradise, as we have seen, 
 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 permitted 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 — tohis glory — to 
 the meditation on his perfections and works — to the du- 
 ties of holy worship and praise — that thus the sanctifi- 
 
 6 2 
 
124 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 cation 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. The 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 ob- 
 serving a law to which his will is already conformed, but 
 to obtain redemption by believing in the divine Mediator 
 of a new and better covenant. Sanctification as to man 
 since the fall, is the recovery of the soul to the lost image 
 of God, the illumination of a darkened und*&rstanding, 
 the giving a right direction to the will, the changing of 
 the whole bias and course of his affections and conduct, 
 the bringing him back to God, his great end, and the 
 preparing him for the enjoyment of God, his ultimate 
 felicity. 
 
 And this answers the objection which is sometimes 
 absurdly 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 to keep a Sabbath. How idle then is the plea, 
 now that man is fallen ! Those who urge it, know little 
 of the nature of true sanctification, and of the difficul- 
 ties under which it is attained in this world of conflict. 
 Even if entire holiness could be reached in this imper- 
 fect state, a day of rest would be indispensable for the 
 honour of God's name, for the more immediatej}uties of 
 public and private devotion, and for the carrying out into 
 full exercise the principles of holiness. But it is folly, 
 it is presumption to talk thus, whilst man in his best at- 
 tainments 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 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 125 
 
 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 application. To keep holy the six 
 days of the week, means only that we intermingle family 
 and private devotions with our lawful labour and work on 
 those days — that we direct our secular calling to God's 
 glory — that we implore his blessing upon all our occu- 
 pations. 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 de- 
 vote 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 sanctifi- 
 cation of it begins, as to us, when our dedication to 
 God begins. We hallow the Sabbath when we our- 
 selves are hallowed to God. We awake to the true im- 
 portance of the institution, when we feel our fallen and 
 sinful state, when we receive the covenant of grace as 
 proposed in the gospel, when we seek to be sanctified, 
 body, soul, and spirit, to be the Lord's. A divine life 
 infused into the soul of man — a perception of the na- 
 ture and excellency of spiritual things — a view of the 
 glory and majesty of the great Redeemer — a reliance 
 upon his death and resurrection — a dependence upon 
 the influence of his Holy Spirit, — these bring the Sab- 
 bath and the human heart together. The Sabbath is 
 born to man when he is born to God. Then it recalls, 
 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 
 
126 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 holiness — we do not desire sanctification — we stop in the 
 external 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 ordi- 
 nances and exercises of that day are calculated to pro- 
 duce. Implore, then, the grace of the Holy Spirit to 
 affect 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, 
 
 II. The public and private duties of it will 
 follow most naturally. 
 
 These will demand of us less time, because the main 
 design being comprehended and felt, the details of parti- 
 cular rules will be easy ; and yet we must not omit them. 
 They relate to the public worship of the Almighty ; the 
 care of our family ; our personal and private communion 
 with God ; a due attention to all dependent on us, ex- 
 tending even to our cattle; together with suc]iyneces- 
 sary offices of charity as arise in the course of the sacred 
 duties of the day. 
 
 1. The public exercises of 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 sanc- 
 tuary in the first place. A holy convocation was a 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 127 
 
 part of the sabbatical 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 cus- 
 tom 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 changed the day 
 of rest to honour 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 
 celebrated " the breaking of bread,'' as the Eucharist 
 is sometimes called. The precept " not to forsake the 
 assembling of themselves together," completes the proof 
 and devolves the duty upon us. Man, as a social crea- 
 ture, never glorifies God more, nor advances his own 
 sanctification in a larger measure, than when he openly 
 recognises the Christian religion, and honours the re- 
 surrection 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 common the gift 
 of pardon, and receive its assurances — there they hear 
 the word of God solemnly read — there the sacraments 
 are administered — there they pour out their litanies at 
 the throne of grace — there they hear the gospel preached 
 and its truths applied to the hearts and consciences, — 
 and there, finally, they sing the high praises of their 
 Maker, Benefactor, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Such 
 worship resembles that of the angelic choirs of heaven. 
 The six days' work and toil and temptation are forgot- 
 ten — 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 public uninterrupted worship of God. 
 Angels and glorified 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 harmonious and devout exercises of public wor- 
 ship. 
 
 An early attendance — a devout interest in all the parts 
 
128 PRACTICAL DUTIES [sERM. V. 
 
 of the service — an application to our own case of the 
 prayers, lessons, sermons^fervent gratitude in the offer- 
 ings of praise — an edifying posture and demeanour — a 
 candid and docile consideration of the doctrine delivered 
 — audible and solemn responses, — these are the indica- 
 tions of the true worshipper ; who confines not his public 
 duties to one attendance, but rejoices twice to appear in 
 those " courts" where the 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 please, but we must stop all the secular work which 
 might 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 encourage them to perform those offices, both 
 public and private, by every suitable means. And there- 
 fore the fourth commandment is a family command- 
 ment. The heads of families are made answerable for 
 all who are under their roof. " Six days are we to la- 
 bour, and do," not the greatest part, but " o//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 positively prohibits us 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 reca- 
 pitulation of the law, " that thy man-servant ai?d thy 
 maid-servant may rest as well as thou." The discharge 
 of them from all ordinary and servile work is indispen- 
 sable. 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 human race ; 
 and we must see that in our household the gift is not 
 lost. It is our business to complete on the Saturday, or 
 postpone to the Monday, what would intrench on the 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 129 
 
 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 domestic prayers will on that sa- 
 cred 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 
 t^ie Sunday morning ; and in the afternoon or evening, 
 as the case may be, he will catechise the young, and give 
 famihar and more detailed instruction to his servants. 
 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 promote 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 dependents, 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 Abra- 
 ham, " command his children and his household after 
 him ;" and, like Joshua, resolve, " As for me and my 
 house, we will serve the Lord." 
 
 S. The private and personal duties must pre- 
 pare for, and succeed, the public and domestic. For the 
 Sabbath is for the sanctification of each individual. It 
 is a barrier thrown in upon the current of worldl}^ things, 
 behind which, each one is to collect himself and stem the 
 tide, and work himself back again to his God. More 
 depends on the intervals between the social pub- 
 lic exercises of the Lord's day, than we may at first 
 imagine. Fill them up with vain conversations, idle 
 visits, worldly reading, carelessness, indolence, or sloth, 
 and all the fruit of public and domestic worship is de- 
 stroyed — the taste of them is lost — and the form of 
 them will not be long persevered in. But let these in- 
 terstices be duly occupied with earnest prayer, examina- 
 tion of the heart, communion with God, meditation, 
 intercession for children, family, friends, and reflections 
 on the public instruction we have received, — and all will 
 assume another complexion. In these secret musings, 
 
 g5 
 
130 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 the heart is visited with grace, the sermons and lessons 
 sink deep into the habit, the mind is calmed and tran- 
 quillized, some additional power of interior devotion 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 together 
 the separate materials of the sacred festival, which, with- 
 out it, fall to pieces, sink into decay, and lose all their 
 plastic energy and force. How can we expect any 
 breathings of grace, any communion with the Father 
 of spirits, any quickening and elevation of the heart, if 
 we draw nigh to God merely in the outward form, and 
 mock him with a pretence of service, the affections 
 being left behind? A heart unprepared 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 dependents — 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 practical the duties 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 vio- 
 lated, is but too manifest. The shops and warehpuses 
 of too many witness against them. The counting-houses 
 and offices, and counsel-rooms of too many are the de- 
 struction 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 do- 
 mestics, will be no adequate defence at the tribunal of 
 God. The workmen in manufactories are committed to 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 131 
 
 the care of the persons whom they serve. Contrivance, 
 management, order, are requh'ed of them. Influence is 
 a talent for which an account 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 of even lawful gain to 
 be suspended — all the hurry of life to be calmed — not 
 only the master and parent with his family, but the 
 principals and conductors of professional or commercial 
 concerns — the statesman in his cabinet — the magis- 
 trate on the bench — the merchart 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 honour the day which is the sign of the 
 Christian covenant, and the means of Christian sanctifi- 
 cation — 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 peculiarly qualified him. 
 
 Works of real necessity and mercy may, indeed, be 
 done on the sacred day, such as our Lord by his exam- 
 ple authorised, and as the great moral ends of the institu- 
 tion persuade. We relieve the sick from present suffer- 
 ing, we satisfy the demands of hunger, we pluck an ox 
 or an ass from a pit, we give food to our cattle, we use 
 the gentle labour of our domestic animals,^ so far as may 
 be necessary for conveying 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 Legislator imports, and 
 our Lord has determined. Such explanation, in oppo- 
 sition to the decrees of the Jewish doctors, as he judged 
 necessary, he gave ; but in all other respects he left the 
 
 * The Shunammite, when her child died, begged of her husband 
 to send her " one of the asses," that she might go to the man of 
 God. The reply seems to show, that the most devout Jews 
 made use of these animals on the Sabbath, for the purpose of 
 attending the worship of God. " Wherefore wilt thou go to him 
 to-day ? It is neither new moon nor sabbath ?" 2 Kings iv. 22, 23. 
 
132 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 law 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 
 performed in subserviency thereto, and works of ne- 
 cessary CHARITY, (for such is the real bearing of the 
 exception, as supported by 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 worship, and deny it as to the remaining duties 
 of the institution ? What ! is it enough merely to wor- 
 ship 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 subsequent meditation and 
 prayer ? \Vhat! 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 even- 
 ing 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 
 complied with, none is. 
 
 Or need I stop to enumerate those various secular 
 works, which are unlawful on this day of the Lord? 
 Need I expose the miserable sophistry, which substi- 
 tutes a mere change of worldly engagements for t^ 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 withdraw from the exchange, or the courts of 
 law, into the chamber of consultation, or the secret room 
 
 ' Dr. Humphrey's Essays, p 43. 
 
S^RM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 133 
 
 of settlements and bargains; is this keeping the Lord's 
 day ? What ! I employ not mj' labourers 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 hin'ry of the city or town, 
 for the mere sensual indulgence of the suburban retreat 
 — I " eat, and drink, and am merry ; " I collect around 
 me friends as thoughtless as myself — I employ my ser- 
 vants in the unnecessary toil of preparing luxurious 
 meals — I go from the church to the ride, the garden, 
 the park, the pleasure-ground, the river. I walk over 
 my farm or my lands, I arrange for the business of the 
 following week, I plunge into literary or scientific read- 
 ing, I lose my devotional feelings in tiie abominations of 
 a Sunday newspaper — and this I call religion — this 1 
 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 but may discern much to be amended, im- 
 proved, omitted, supplied. Our order of engagements 
 is incomplete, our care of our family wanting in vigi- 
 lance, our forethought drowsy and treacherous, our in- 
 terruptions of religious exercises too frequent and too 
 long. There is much that admits of alteration. 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 dishonourable to the Sabbath, are 
 at least not so honourable 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 dis- 
 pensation INTO these duties. We must not cele- 
 brate a Jewish, 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 ser- 
 
134 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 vice, which the hberty of the gospel breathes, and with- 
 out 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." 1 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."- Or again, " My soul shall be satisfied as 
 with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee 
 with joyful lips."3 
 
 This is the language of delight, of repose of soul in 
 the duties of religion. Join to this the particular dis- 
 coveries of the New Testament, as to the way of access 
 in the blood of Christ, and by the influences of the Spi- 
 rit, and we have the complete description of the de- 
 votional 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 themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to 
 love the name of the Lord — even them will I bring to 
 my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house 
 of prayer." * Love, choice of God, joy in the house 
 of prayer, stand in complete contrast with a yoke, a 
 burden, a mere task, as too many represent 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 Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; 
 
 Ps. Ixxxiv. 1, 2, 10. ^ Ps. xxvii. 4. 
 
 ' Ps. Ixiii. 5. 4 Isaiah Ivi. 2, 7. 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 135 
 
 and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, ho- 
 nourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
 ways, not finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine 
 own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the 
 Lord."i 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, honourable, and shalt honour him." We 
 are to esteem it honourable, above all other days ; we 
 are peculiarly to honour 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 omni- 
 potent, 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, intellectual pleasure — " If thou turn 
 away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy plea- 
 sure, 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 of happiness. 
 Then we shall cease from " doing our pleasure ;" and 
 shall willingly aim at doing the pleasure of God. Amuse- 
 ment, recreation, pastimes, indolent repose, satisfaction in 
 worldly company, worldly society, worldly banquets, will 
 cease; and new pleasures will be sought for in the plea- 
 sures of devotion, of faith, of hope, of communion with 
 
 * Isaiah Iviii. 13, 14. 
 
136 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 God. Then will the Sabbath be a " delight, the holy 
 of the Lord, honourable ;" and we shall honour God in 
 it. And thus will our pleasure, ways, words, works, be 
 newly directed. Instead of *' doings our own ways,' 
 we shall choose the ways that God commands, and oc- 
 cupy the Sabbath with its appropriate 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 neighbour. Perhaps 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, in- 
 quiries, discussions on matters literary, political, philo- 
 sophical. Thus all impression of spiritual things fades 
 from the mind ; the seed of the word is lost ; the ordi- 
 nary associations and habits of the six days' labours are 
 insensibly 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 en- 
 courages the most flagrant violation of the Sabbath, in 
 those wdio print, who sell, who circulate these monstrous 
 productions — too commonly filled with matter of the 
 most licentious and sceptical tendency ; and more inju- 
 rious and contaminating, from the day on which they are 
 disseminated. They totally unfit the mind for the reli- . 
 gious 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 inciting, than 
 that of a family, a neighbourhood, a parish, honouring 
 the day of God with cheerful and grateful hearts — medi- 
 tating on that sanctification which is the great design of 
 the day of rest — filling 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 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 137 
 
 fear, but the spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father ?"i 
 How quici^ly would difficulties be overcome, if once we 
 found our pleasure in the exercises of religion ! See how 
 men contrive, labour, surmount obstacles, for the enjoy- 
 ment of what they love I Observe how eagerly they 
 hasten on the hour, when the pleasure returns. Mark 
 how they endeavour to lengthen the period of its conti- 
 nuance — then contrast with this the weariness they 
 feel in the duties of the Sabbath — how they abridge 
 the heavy employ — how they encroach insensibly 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 
 irreverence in their manner ! How insensible to the 
 sympathies of devotion ! How awake to every slight 
 inconvenience, 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 dissatisfac- 
 tion, 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 countenance, and all would 
 be in keeping with the designs of the Almighty, in the 
 institution of the day. 
 
 One caution may here be offered. We ought to preserve 
 the amiable spirit of our Saviour, and the gentle temper of 
 his religion, in our domestic arrangements. Few things 
 are more important than to make the Sunday agreeable, 
 in a proper sense of the term, to young persons and ser- 
 vants. If anything morose and rigid is apparent in our 
 manner towards those placed under our care, it will in- 
 evitably create disgust and aversion. And yet remiss- 
 ness, negligence, 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 les- 
 sening in the least their general effect. The reading of 
 ' Rom. viii. 15. 
 
138 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 the Scripture — the writing or finding texts upon a given 
 subject — the learning of hymns — catechising — the fa- 
 mily devotions of the morning and evening — the public 
 worship of God, afford sufficient diversity to excite at- 
 tention 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. 
 
 But we hasten to complete our review of the manner in 
 which the Christian Sabbath should be observed, by sug- 
 gesting, that, in addition to what we have noted,we must, 
 
 IV. Especially glorify God for those mighty 
 
 BLESSINGS WHICH ARE APPOINTED TO BE COMME- 
 MORATED ON THE Lord's day — Creation, Redemp- 
 tion, 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 sanctifica- 
 tion, of public and private devotion, and of a temper of 
 filial repose and joy in God. I conceive we are often 
 lamentably deficient 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 exclu- 
 sively occupied with 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 mag- 
 nificence of his benefits — we forget that song&jB^er 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 institu- 
 tion in paradise, but in the Mosaic law, in the various 
 recapitulations of it, and even in the epistle to the He- 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 139 
 
 brews, 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 separate ourselves from atheists, unbe- 
 lievers, sceptics, profane contemners of God, now ; just 
 as the patriarchs and Israelites of old separated them- 
 selves from heathens, from idolaters, 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 histories, 
 and psalms which relate to the creation, are read, as well 
 as in our own private and domestic devotions, glorify ex- 
 pressly the great God of heaven and earth, adore the 
 wonders of his hand, meditate on his wisdom, good- 
 ness, and power, and ascribe to him the praise of crea- 
 tion, preservation, continual deliverance. A Christian is 
 the only true philosopher. He sees God in every thing. 
 He acknowledges 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 celebrated at the creation of man, when 
 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, immortal, 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 
 of praise, which on the Sabbath surrounds our heavenly 
 King. At the deliverance from Egypt this song was 
 begun ; but at the great deliverance from the spiritual 
 Egypt, it was amplified and exalted. This temporal re- 
 demption was prefixed to the promulgation of the whole 
 decalogue, from the Mount of Sinai : " I am the Lord 
 thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out 
 of the house of bondage ;" and it was attached especially 
 to the fourth commandment, 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 
 
140 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 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, transferred it to the eternal 
 blessing. Yes ; on the first day of the week we adore a 
 triumphant Saviour, we meditate on his ceasing and rest- 
 ing and being refreshed from the work of the new crea- 
 tion; even as Almighty God ceased from his. No Sab- 
 bath should pass without the praises of our rising, ascend- 
 ing, interceding Redeemer being sounded in the church. 
 It is his own day, the day of his glory, the day of his 
 resting from his labours, the day of his " opening the 
 kingdom of heaven to all believers.'' The song is already 
 prepared to our hands : " Thou hast ascended up on 
 high ; thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received 
 gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord 
 God might dwell among them.''^ We must add to the 
 other especial duties of the Sabbath, this record of our 
 faith in Christ. We must subjoin to the praises of 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 oifereth praise 
 glorifieth me," saith the Lord by the psalmist, " and to 
 him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show 
 the salvation of God." 2 
 
 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 antici- 
 pations 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 ©t-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 happiness at which he aims. " There re- 
 maineth a rest," this last refreshment and salvation "for 
 the people of God." Let us look up towards it, dear bre- 
 thren, in our meditations and hopes. Let every Sabbath 
 
 ' Psalm Ixviii. 18. - Psalm 1. 23. 
 
SERM. V."] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 141 
 
 prepare us for its appropriate enployment. 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 realise 
 the promises of redemption, to view with gratitude the 
 wonders of creation and providence, and to unite all with 
 the prospects of the rest of heaven. St. Augustine con- 
 siders the Sabbath as peculiarly the law of the Holy 
 Ghost. The first two commandments he looks upon as 
 relating to the honour 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 sab- 
 batical precept, he refers to the praise of the Holy Ghost, 
 who, as the author of rest and peace in his church, is 
 peculiarly honoured on the day which agrees so entirely 
 with his own office.^ We enter not into a defence criti- 
 cally of the sentiment 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 
 duties of the Christian Sabbath, let us, in applying the 
 discourse, 
 
 1. Discover topics of humiliation from the dis- 
 cussion which has taken place. Which of us discharges 
 the duties 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 
 observation of the sacred season be elevated, or decline. 
 Nothing is more difficult, considering our corruption 
 and the snares of Satan, than a holy, wise, and kind, 
 and yet resolute government of ourselves and families 
 on the Lord's day. All possible hindrances arise to 
 oppose this duty. 
 
 Prayer, therefore, for larger measures of the Holy 
 
 * See British Review, viii. 483. 
 
142 PRACTICAL DUTIES [SERM. V. 
 
 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 sins 
 and defects will be forgiven us through the blood of 
 Christ ; our infirmities succoured by the power of the 
 Hoi}'- Ghost. Thus will our Sabbaths pour into our 
 hearts the consolation of the promises ; and at length 
 terminate in God himself, who first instituted the day, 
 and who is its highest consummation and end. 
 
 II. Remark the conviction which such a dis- 
 course SHOULD fix in THE MINDS OF THE IRRELI- 
 GIOUS 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 declare 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 themselves. The 
 further they recede from devotional habits and delights, 
 the greater distance do they place between themselves 
 and God. 
 
 Yes, let such be induced to consider their own ways 
 and turn to the Lord. Let them weigh the authority, 
 and remember the duties of God's blessed>~d^y ; and 
 let them seek that fundamental change of heart which 
 will render the devotions of the day a pleasure, its duties 
 a choice, its proper exercises the spontaneous overflow- 
 ing of gratitude and love. Then would these Sabbaths 
 be the nundin^e spirituales, the " spiritual market- 
 days" to their souls ; then would they be as anxious to 
 carry away commeatum anim^, the provision for the 
 mind, for reforming the will, for regulating the aflfec- 
 
SERM. v.] OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 143 
 
 tions, 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 con- 
 science 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 Sabbath-violator to be placed, who rests 
 only as his ox, or his ass, or his cattle ? W^here is the 
 pleasure-taking Sabbath-breaker to be arranged ? 
 Where the gluttonous and wine-bibbing? Where the 
 busy, mercantile, or professional Sabbath-breaker, who 
 thinks that the hurries of his concerns 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 Redeemer? 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 sinner, 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 
 authority — shall he have poured around it all the milder 
 glories of 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 pro- 
 perty, thy six days' labour ? Wilt thou remain insen- 
 
 ^ Bishop Andrews. 
 
 ' Bishop Andrews speaks wittily of the Sabbatum asinorum— 
 Sabbatum aurei vituli — Sabbatum Satanae — Sabbatum Tyri ; the 
 Sabbath of Asses — of the Golden Calf^ — of Satan— of the men 
 of Tyre. 
 
144 PRACTICAL DUTIES, &C. [SERM. V. 
 
 sible to thine eternal interest, thy present and future 
 happiness, the preparation thou needest for death and 
 judgment? O consider thy ways, seek thy Saviour'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 
 enter into all the enjoyments of the Sabbath, enter into 
 some of them. By degrees new and better habits will 
 be formed. By degrees the whole compass of Sabbatical 
 duties 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 duties which spring from it, as branches from 
 the parent stock. Next seek for something of the spi- 
 ritual taste which forms the Christian temper. And 
 lastly, let the grand blessings of creation and redemp- 
 tion, and the hope of heaven, be in some degree the 
 topics of your praise. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE UNSPEAKABLE IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT 
 OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH, WITH THE 
 EVILS OF THE OPPOSITE ABUSE. 
 
 Isaiah Iviii. 1, 2. 
 
 Cry cdoud^ spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, 
 and sheiv my people their transgression, and the 
 house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, 
 and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did 
 righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their 
 God : they ask of me the ordinances of justice ; they 
 take delight 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 au- 
 thority 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 transgressions, and the house of 
 Jacob," the professed church of Christ, " their sins." 
 He must penetrate the thin disguises which a false reli- 
 gion 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 external advantages 
 
 H 
 
146 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 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. 
 
 We proceed, therefore, to set before you the un- 
 speakable IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT OBSERVATION 
 
 OF THE Lord's day, with the evils of the op- 
 posite ABUSE — a subject difficult to treat from its very 
 magnitude, from the multitude of topics which it em- 
 braces, and from the little perception men in general 
 have of the sin of neglecting and dishonouring 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 
 with peculiar violence against a barrier, which, like the 
 Lord's day, is raised 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 unnum- 
 beredVices and disorders ; must draw into itself torrents 
 of those particular evils, which are ever ready to accu- 
 mulate, as in a common receptacle, where space is given. 
 There is no middle state here — the influence of the Sab- 
 bath for good or for evil, upon nations, churches, fami- 
 lies, individuals, is incalculable. It is meant to be the 
 best and holiest day in the week ; but, if perverted, it , 
 becomes the worst and most destructive. 
 
 But how shall we impress you most deeply with this 
 subject ? 1 . Shall we show you that a due regard to the 
 institution by a Christian nation is of the nature of a 
 sacred compact ? 2. That it is essential to man's tem- 
 poral and spiritual welfare, as a fallen but accountable 
 creature ? 3. That it includes all the application of the 
 Christian religion, and, in fact, its preservation in the 
 world ? 4. That it binds together all the links and ob- 
 ligations of civil society? 5. That it immediately re- 
 spects the authority and honour of Almighty God, and 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 147 
 
 his favour 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 depend- 
 ing for success on no power but his own ; we may 
 direct our inquiries with simplicity, and obey the dic- 
 tates of truth with unreserved courage and joy ! 
 
 I. For what, in fact, is the observation of the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath, but a most sacred compact ; and what 
 the abuse of it but the violation of that compact ? It 
 is obvious, that it can only be by the very general and 
 almost universal agreement of a nation, that secular 
 affairs can be suspended, business stopped, public recrea- 
 tion and amusements forbidden, offices and establish- 
 ments closed, the ministers of religion furnished with 
 protection in the discharge of their duties, the interrup- 
 tions of open profligacy prevented, 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 expression of public opi- 
 nion — and go a certain length, both negatively in the 
 repression of open insults on Christianity, and positively 
 in sustaining and supporting the ministers and worship- 
 pers 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 condescending God and Saviour. 
 
 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 frequently 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 Sabbath was of perpetual moral obliga- 
 tion, to fill up the detail. The condition of domestic 
 
 h2 
 
148 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 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 mildly triumphed over em- 
 perors and kings and statesmen and magistrates by the 
 influence of the truth, things were changed. The holy 
 day of weekly rest succeeded the festivals of the heathen 
 worship When England was converted in the course 
 of the divine mercy, her Heathen rights, her Druidical 
 orgies, her savage customs, her brutal and idolatrous sa- 
 crifices, were cast away — and the love ofGod, the preach- 
 ing of the blessed gospel, the singing praises to Christ, 
 the celebration of the mysteries of his death, and the ob- 
 servation of the hallowed day on which all these were to 
 be performed, succeeded to them. Christian legislators 
 in our own, as in other countries, arose to do what they 
 could in guarding the new institutions. They conti- 
 nued thus to act. But still upon the consciences of in- 
 dividuals has ever rested, and must rest, the real and 
 effectual obligation. The inhabitants of every nation 
 who submit to the yoke of the gospel, assume their pro- 
 fession as Christians by the celebration of one day of re- 
 ligious joy. The covenant is signed and sealed, as it 
 were, in this visible acknowledgment of the Christian 
 faith ; but the spirit and conduct of individuals and fa- 
 milies fill up the conditions of it. Thus it is a compact. 
 If devout 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 care- 
 lessness, indifference, non-attendance creep in upon the 
 general body, the compact is violated. It may remain, 
 indeed, in its form — the external law may be unabro- 
 gated — the churches may stand as before — the minis- 
 ters of religion may retain their office, — but the com- 
 pact 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, con- 
 temned, and the Sabbath will be no more. 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. l49 
 
 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 con- 
 sent, of beginning a destructive habit, of infecting the 
 entire community. The good example, the influence, 
 the devout conduct of each family, each person, goes 
 to sustain the general 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- 
 less, the profane, the covetous, the unbelieving amongst 
 our population — see their Sabbaths — estimate the evil 
 done, not by the independent acts, but by the fearful in- 
 fluence, by the covenant broken, the stipulation trodden 
 under foot, the engagements rendered difficult to others, 
 and impossible to themselves. Let no one say, ' 1 am 
 but an individual,' — for a nation is made up of indivi- 
 duals. Let no one say, ' A single act can be of small 
 evil,' — for the observance of a national Sabbath is com- 
 posed of multiplied 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 aggregation of minute 
 elements; and every obstacle retards the flow. 
 
 n. But estimate, in the next place, if you can, the 
 importance of the universal observation of the Christian 
 Sabbath, from its bearings upon man's temporal and 
 
 SPIRITUAL WF.LFARE, AS A FALLEN BUT ACCOUNTABLE 
 
 CREATURE. For is man, or is he not, an immortal be- 
 ing ? Has he, or has he not, a soul allied to God, capa- 
 ble 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, 
 
150 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 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 welfare — to his attention 
 to his religious convictions ? Is it not 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 ap- 
 prehension 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 
 rational part, his responsibility to an eternal Judge. The 
 necessities of the body chiefly occupy the six days ; the 
 immortal destiny of man, and his ultimate vocation by 
 the gospel, claim the seventh. Nothing more tends to 
 improve all the faculties, to quicken the practical judg- 
 ment, to mature and invigorate the powers of the mind, 
 to enlarge the sphere and multiply the sources of the 
 purest intellectual pleasure, to open the widest avenues 
 to happiness,to unite man w^ith 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, acknowledg- 
 ing his goodness, celebrating his praises, hearing his 
 word, partaking of his mysteries ! Creation, redemption, 
 heaven brought, after an interval of six days' toil and 
 secularity, full before their view, and elevating and at- 
 tracting the heart of a wayward, perverse, bu^ noble 
 race ! 
 
 It is to be further borne in mind, that man is fallen, 
 corrupted, propense to the external objects which sur- 
 round 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 peni- 
 tence, to prayer. If the Sabbath be desecrated, the ori- 
 
SERM VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 131 
 
 ginal disease gains ground ; man's convalescence, only 
 incipient and doubtful, is suspended, and his whole spi- 
 ritual recovery and prosperity are endangered. It is 
 not of Adam uncorrupted that we speak, but of Adam's 
 race, sunk in selfishness and flesh, with only faint re- 
 mains 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 Christian world in 
 any form, that we exclusively speak ; it is for the family 
 of man scattered over the face of the earth, and lost in 
 heathenism and infidelity, that we would reserve the 
 Sabbath; it is for Pagans and Mahometans, for the mem- 
 bers of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, that 
 we plead. We would exhibit to them the holy Sabbatli 
 in the example of the purer Christian bodies, to draw 
 their attention, to mark the reality of our religion, to pro- 
 vide them information 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 recognises his 
 authority over man — that day which proclaims man's 
 intellectual and accountable nature, his future, his eter- 
 nal hopes ? The Sabbath interposes a space between 
 total irreligion and the conscience of man ; it puts in 
 the claims of God upon the human heart. 
 
 Nor is the temporal welfare of mankind less con- 
 cerned than their spiritual, in the observation of the 
 Lord's day. Man was created for six days' work, not for 
 seven : his faculties cannot bear an unremitted strain. 
 Children, and servants, and the labouring classes of man- 
 kind, (by far the more numerous, and the most liable to 
 be oppressed,) require, what this institution gives — a 
 day of repose, of refreshment, 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 labour of man is in the proportion of rest 
 and exertion ordained by his merciful Creator. The 
 best prevention of disease — the prolongation of human 
 
152 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 life itself, depends on the like alternation of toil and 
 repose. The springs of pleasure are thus augmented 
 and purified. The satiety, the sameness, the weariness, 
 the uniformity of human life is broken ; and a blessed, 
 hallowed period for religion is interposed. The in- 
 terval between these seasons is neither so distant as 
 to be ineffectual 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 highest welfare of the body and 
 concerns of man. 
 
 How great, then, is the importance of every one's 
 falling 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 honours into the rank of the brute ; 
 see him lost in appetite, vice, lust, pride, carelessness, 
 with nothing to redeem, nothing to call him back, no- 
 thing to restore ; the Spirit of God departed from him ; 
 a reprobate sense possessing and weighing down his 
 soul. The main difference between heathen and Chris- 
 tian nations is the recurrence and due observation of a 
 Sabbath. The violation of this day in Christian coun- 
 tries is a brand upon the forehead of nominal religion. 
 See the Sabbath-breaker opening his shop, writing his 
 letters, preparing his accounts : see him entering his 
 office ; see him imposing upon his servants, his clerks, 
 his dependents, the yoke of unpermitted and^nholy 
 labour. 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 prejudices. But he is the slave of covetousness, 
 of pride, of appetite. The violation of the Sabbath 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OP THE SABBATH. 153 
 
 draws with it the neglect of all other religious duties 
 — prayer, family religion, 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 crea- 
 ture, 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 Saviour to relieve him as to the past. The Sunday 
 journal, the Sunday festival, the Sunday amusements, 
 fail to please. He sinks into lifeless despondency, or 
 frets with infuriated malice — all his noble capacities 
 perverted, because his God has been contemned, and 
 the day of religion abused. 
 
 And mark his inhumanit}^ and want of sympathy with 
 the feelings and miseries of his dependants, the poor, 
 the weak, the depressed. He robs the vast mass of the 
 human family of one of the best boons of heaven ; he 
 compels them to work when God allowed them to repose; 
 he chains down in vice and ignorance 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 God, to erect the vain 
 idol of an imaginary deity, and to sink at last into a 
 practical Atheism. 
 
 HI. But we proceed to show, that the due observation 
 of the Lord's day includes all the applications of 
 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, and, in fact, its preservation 
 in the world ; whilst the violation of it goes to the ex- 
 actly contrary effect. For what is the Christian religion, 
 without its means of instruction and grace ? What is 
 Christianit}' without the Bible, without the ministry of 
 God's word, without meditation and prayer, without the 
 education of children, without the familiar communica- 
 tion of truth to the poor and ignorant ? And when and 
 how are these means to be put into effect, if the day ap- 
 pointed for that very purpose is desecrated, dishonoured, 
 
 h5 
 
154 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 lost ? And what is the apphcation of Christianity by all 
 these methods, but the grand point, the main end of that 
 divine revelation ? It v/as given to be made known, to 
 be applied to the conscience of every human being. It 
 was given to be an universal religion. 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 dis- 
 pensation, and in contrast with all the idolatries of the 
 heathen superstitions. It is not a limited design of sepa- 
 rating 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 ceremonial observances swept away — and all man- 
 kind 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, con- 
 fined to the schools of learning as to its real tenets, and 
 leaving the multitude in the gloom of a cruel and de- 
 basing 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 re- 
 covery of apostate, sinful creatures, in the death of the 
 eternal Son of God. It promises the divine and effectual 
 grace of the Holy Spirit. It erects a system 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 all these methods of in- 
 struction the HOLY Sabbath is constituted — this gives 
 the time, the space, the monitory call, the ^jrivilege, 
 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 sal- 
 vation," which every one is bound to read, to search, to 
 meditate upon. But when? On the day of the Bible, 
 the day which the very first history in its pages institutes 
 and hallows. Blot out the Sabbath ; you make the regu- 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 155 
 
 lar 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 
 ministry of the word — she bids the faithful pastor, evan- 
 gelist, 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 understanding, press it upon the heart of man. 
 There stands the minister of Christ, as the voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord." He vindicates truth, he clears it from the subter- 
 fuges of human folly, he sets forth its genuine impor- 
 tance. Then he convokes the assemblies of men, he 
 calls them to repentance and faith, he forms them into 
 churches ; he meets them for the purposes 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 mankind to assist 
 at religious convocations? The Holy Christian 
 Sabbath. W^ithout the Sabbath, all is confusion, dis- 
 traction, 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 ? Where 
 is the profession of the faith of Christ, without holy sup- 
 plication, in assembled bodies, to seek the divine favour, 
 to honour the divine majesty, to avow our dependence on 
 the divine grace ? How are the blessings of revelation 
 to be obtained, without the humble suit and united pe- 
 tition, to which God has been pleased to attach them ? 
 The Sabbath abolished, neglected, dishonoured ; 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 
 
156 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 day of rest which gives time for prayer, which calls to 
 public and private and domestic devotion, which shuts 
 out the world, and brings man before the presence of his 
 God. 
 
 And when, again, are theblessedsacraments 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 de- 
 voutly 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, 
 and prayer. They are the bond of communion between 
 Christians and their divine Head. They constitute a 
 grand branch of the profession 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 trutli to the vast body 
 of the poor and ignorant, without a time and space for 
 those duties, 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 spiritual machinery, and for its easy 
 operation and blessed fruits. Abolish the Lord's day, 
 and 3^ou abolish the education of the population, the in- 
 culcation of primary truth, the diffusion of religious 
 knowledge, the amelioration and safe elevation in the 
 scale of intellectual and moral being, of the very classes 
 for whom the Saviour came, to whom he declared his 
 gospel to be best adapted, and whose welfare, teJhporal 
 and spiritual, he especially consulted. 
 
 Consider, then, the unspeakable obligation of the 
 Sabbath. On the means enumerated no one w\\i dis- 
 pute that the application of Christianity depends — to 
 these 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 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 157 
 
 divine religion —its holy influences — its transforming, 
 renovating power, very much depend on this one sin- 
 gle point, the sanctification of the Christian Sabbath. 
 Every act of profanation of its holy duties, every argu- 
 ment levelled against its authority, every example of a 
 careless, irreligious family neglecting its claims, goes to 
 undo or prevent the healing virtues of Christianity — it 
 goes to turn religion from a practical, holy, blessed prin- 
 ciple, 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 
 importance of the Sabbath, is from the evils which the 
 violation 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 unaccountable being ; but prevents all the 
 application of Christianity 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 de- 
 cent morals is not at once thrown off. But look at the 
 sure result. What is the Sabbath-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 violation of the Sabbath in- 
 creases, his disposition to attend the public preaching of 
 the gospel lessens, his resolutions of returning to it be- 
 come weaker, his regard for Christianity itself gradually 
 expires. Does he join in public or domestic prayer? — 
 Alas! he has left off the devout practice since the Sab- 
 bath has been broken. When he began the occasional 
 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 weari- 
 some, then disgusting, then perverted to occasional, 
 and lastly to continued, indulgences of a secular kind — 
 
158 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 and with this, prayer was renounced, forgotten. And 
 what has the Sabbath-breaker to do with the sacrament, 
 or with the rehgious education of the young, and the 
 poor and ignorant? He may promote the pride of in- 
 tellectual knowledge, he may diffuse a literature tinged 
 with infidelity, he may nourish the daring spirit of in- 
 quiry M^hich a false philosophy proclaims ; but the solid, 
 religious, useful education of the young and ignorant 
 in their immortal destinies, in their accountableness to 
 God, in their duties to their Creator, Redeemer, Sancti- 
 fier, he utterly neglects and opposes. In short, if the 
 real want of religious character in the violator 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 some ears, that the existence of Christianity in the 
 world depends 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 virtually renounced — and where is 
 Christianity, where its hold upon man, where its means 
 of operation, where its healing influence, where its ap- 
 plication to the heart ? Yes ; God has bound every 
 thing together. In appointing a Sabbath, he has not 
 instituted an 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 re- 
 velation 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 ac- 
 companying means of the whole scheme of redemptfion — 
 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 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 159 
 
 thing if practically employed, every thing if animated 
 and blessed with the presence 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 obligatioiss 
 OF HUMAN SOCIETY, which the violation of it tends to 
 destroy. 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 pros- 
 pect of the tribunal of Christ, which strengthens human 
 authority, preserves the peace of communities and na- 
 tions, and is the bond of human society. The Sabbath 
 recalls all these great principles, impresses them anew 
 when effaced, urges them when neglected, deepens them 
 more and more, and preserves them in activity upon the 
 heart. l£ the Sabbath be lost, man is selfish, proud, 
 discontented, disloj^al, turbulent. His conscience be- 
 comes hardened, his passions restless, his submission to 
 human authority reluctant. If the Sabbath be duly ob- 
 served, 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, the obligations of conscience are vigorous and 
 effectual, peace reigns within the breast, and willing 
 subjection to authority, as the ordinance of God, follows. 
 Civil society is contained and held together by the Sab- 
 bath ; which gives firmness and consistency to all the 
 intercourse of man with man, to all the engagements 
 which cement honourable commerce and the affairs of a 
 peaceful agriculture, to all the current opinions and feel- 
 ings 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 
 origin, their common guilt, their common mercies, their 
 common duties. It places them before an Almighty 
 Judge, and shrivels into insignificance the petty distinc- 
 tions of rank and wealth, in the view of the eternal and all- 
 
160 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 glorious Potentate. To meet in one common temple, 
 before one common Saviour, to supplicate one and the 
 same salvation, sheds a humanizing, softening influence, 
 gives a common sympathy, excites the feelings of bro- 
 therhood and intercommunity. 
 
 The Sabbath tends to humble man, and thus dispose 
 him 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, forgiveness of injuries. It promotes 
 a courteous, obliging carriage. " 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 de- 
 gree. 1 he Sabbath humanizes man by the very neat- 
 ness and cleanliness and frugality which it diflfuses. 
 Its good order, decency, and comfort, elevate the moral 
 character. Its mildness and calmness of devotion en- 
 gender self-respect, in a proper sense of the word. Its 
 doctrines and duties and sacraments and prayers sub- 
 due the ruder feelings, awaken the humane and tender 
 associations, expel the ruffian-passions, relieve the ser- 
 vant, the child, the dependant, from the oppression of 
 the austere master, and compose and mollify the inter- 
 course of the world. 
 
 Take the opposite abuses, and tell me what vices and 
 outrages are not committed upon the Sabbath, when it is 
 dishonoured 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 im- 
 purity and licentiousness, the Sabbath is the season. Of 
 the degrading habits of drunkenness, the SabbathJ^ 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 discerni- 
 ble. 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, 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 161 
 
 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 morn- 
 ing 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 pros- 
 titutes, 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 j^outh would tremble and flee. 
 ]3ut the tempter conceals all this ; he only says, ' Do 
 not go to church to-day, spend the day with me.' All 
 the rest follows of course :— " the companion of fools 
 shall be destroved." 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, honoured, reverenced, obeyed. He says, 
 God is not an object of admiration, fear, gratitude, love. 
 He that thus condemns 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 
 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 establishments for merchandise, the offices, the posts 
 of public 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, 
 
16'2 IMPORTANCE OF THE EIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 V. That the observation of the Sabbath immediately 
 
 HONOURS ALMIGHTY GOD, AND BRINGS HIS FAVOUR AND 
 
 BLESSING upon a people ; whilst the profanation of it 
 provokes 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 
 blessings, temporal and spiritual ; it is the mark of regard 
 and reverence which he demands from man. What, 
 then, can so immediately touch his honour as the wilful 
 profanation of this institution? It precisely demonstrates 
 man's contempt and ingratitude, his pride and secu- 
 larity, his secret enmity against the government, and 
 dislike of the worship of his God. 
 
 The easier the obedience of it is, the more grievous 
 insult 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 un- 
 reasonable is his disobedience. 
 
 The clearer, again, the light of that dispensation of the 
 gospel under which he lives, the deeper becomes the 
 moral criminality which the sin against so much light 
 brings with it. The more free from false doctrines our 
 creed, and the more favourable 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 
 dimensions of that guilt, which the deliberate profanation 
 of the Lord's day under the gospel dispensation, in a free 
 Protestant country, involves. 
 
 To admit the truth of a divine revelation, and then 
 reject the first and most remarkable features which dis- 
 tinguishes that religion from every other- — the only in- 
 stitution which includes all the worship, all tiie^ adora- 
 tion, all the prayer, all the spiritual duties of that re- 
 ligion — is an inconsistency in itself, as well as an affront 
 put upon our Almighty Benefactor, which no words can 
 adequately express. And this, when our country ac- 
 knowledges a Sabbath, when the laws protect us in 
 some measure in the observation of it, when the habits 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 163 
 
 and usages of commerce are suspended, when some in- 
 genuity must be employed and some force done to our 
 feelings, and some loss of reputation hazarded, in vio- 
 lating 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 em- 
 ploy it to his own ends, and separate it from the autho- 
 rity of the Almighty, he would rejoice to celebrate — 
 which his bodily powers demand, which his fatigue per- 
 suades, which his satiety with the uniformity of worldly 
 pursuits invites,^ — but vv^hich, because God requires it, 
 because religion fixes her eye upon it, because his 
 highest spiritual duties concur with his temporal inter- 
 est in enjoining it, he spurns and contemns ; thus de- 
 monstrating 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 providence, they allow that the affairs of empires, 
 nations, families, individuals, only prosper by his favour 
 and mercy. But how can they reasonably look for this 
 favour and this mercy, if they profane the day, which is 
 the seal and pledge of both ? Can a people thus insult- 
 ing God in the institution which most immediately affects 
 his honour, 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 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 
 himself in us. 
 
 But what are the excuses which men assign for the de- 
 
 * During the excesses of the French Revolution, at the close of 
 the last century, Christianity and its Sabbath were abolished — but 
 the mere necessities of man's nature compelled that infidel and 
 atheistical government to institute a day of rest of their own, what 
 they called a decade, occurring every tenth day. A confession 
 this of the reasonableness of the divine command ! 
 
164 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [sERM. VI. 
 
 secratlon of the Sabbath — asin against which such mighty 
 reasons He, and the guilt of which is of so aggravated a 
 hue ? Let us, in conclusion, 1, strengthen our argument 
 by exposing the weakness of the opposing excuses : let 
 us then, 2, urge you without delay to the full perform- 
 ance of your duty ; let us lastly notice, 3, the additional 
 bonds we are under to consecrate the Sabbath, from the 
 immense honour which God has put upon it by the 
 blessings of his grace and providence in every age. 
 
 I. For what are the excuses which men allege in 
 extenuation of a neglect of the day of God ? 
 
 1. Do they say that 'everyday under the gospel is 
 to be kept holy ?' They say truly ; but each in its own 
 manner. The working days are kept holy, as we have 
 already shown, by performing diligently the duties of 
 our callings, and interweaving religious feelings and ex- 
 ercises therein ; the Sabbath, by celebrating devoutly the 
 express worship of God. The six days, if given up to re- 
 ligious 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. If he knew anything of that delightful em- 
 ployment, all his affections would centre on that privi- 
 leged day which God has given him for communion with 
 himself, and for public and private acts of devotion. 
 
 2. But you charge the due observation of the Sabbath 
 with Pharisaical strictness ; you say ' the demand is 
 enthusiastic, precise, puritanical, intolerable.' But you 
 forget then all the benignity of the blessed Saviour, which 
 swept away the inventions of man, and recallodythe in- 
 stitution 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 Saviour a yoke, the praises of redemption gloomy, 
 the offices of prayer and supplication a weariness. And 
 this is what you really mean — your thin disguises con- 
 ceal not your dislike to religion and the name of Christ. 
 
SERM. VI.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 165 
 
 We understand you. You feel at home in the world of 
 sin and folly ; but religious repose is unwelcome. You 
 are at ease in secular employs ; spiritual are strange. 
 You show, then, tliat all is to begin in the business of 
 your salvation — enter heartily upon that, and the Sab- 
 bath will be honoured as it ought. 
 
 3. I make a similar reply to the plea of the exces- 
 sive HURRY OF AFFAIRS, of the ' impossibility of find- 
 ing time to give a whole day to religion : besides, you 
 only violate the Sunday occasionally, and, as you affirm, 
 reluctantly !' 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 second. 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 religion. 
 
 4. And why should I pause to refute the miserable 
 excuse, ' 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 Al- 
 mighty, 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 be- 
 come, 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 
 sacrifice of your temporal interests, the rivalry of neigh- 
 bours, the general example of persons of your trade or 
 profession, the necessity of the case, — unwrlling 
 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 
 
166 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT [SERM. VI. 
 
 acting without the concurrence of all ' — excuses which 
 would overturn all morals and religion, 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 commandment 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 Christian 
 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, un- 
 belief. Venture, and God will bless you. You shall be 
 recompensed 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 I 
 Who have so much need of the Sabbath as those, who 
 from pride of intellect 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 honour 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 judgment? Aq^ are not 
 these obligations strong in proportion to the divine be- 
 nefits 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 wicked pleas, 
 
SERM. VT.] OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 167 
 
 which cannot deceive ourselves, mucli 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 HONOURING 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 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 disposition to serve God is 
 weakened. Make at once a bold stand, and the duty 
 will become easy. The enemy wdll yield. Satan will 
 be discomfited. Your worldly companions will cease to 
 molest. You will begin to find a pleasure 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 honour 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 incal- 
 culable importance of a right observation of the Lord's 
 day. We have alluded to this more than once. And 
 well we may. For what an honour has God put upon 
 this institution throughout the whole dispensation of the 
 gospel I Who can trace out its history ? Who can 
 number the souls converted, the graces of Christians 
 quickened, the sorrows of the afflicted consoled, the in- 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit granted, the assurances of the 
 Saviour's presence vouchsafed, the sermons and prayers 
 and sacraments rendered effectual? Figure to yourselves 
 what has been transacted on all the Sabbaths 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 
 
168 OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. [^SERM. VI. 
 
 wrought most of his works of ^race upon the Sabbath. 
 You find that the blessed Saviour has been most glorified 
 upon the Sabbath. You find that the Holy Spirit has 
 exerted his agency most upon the Sabbath. What con- 
 fessions of sins, what enlargements of heart, what conso- 
 lations of prayer, what gifts of pardon, what tokens of 
 acceptance, what anticipations of heaven I The testi- 
 mony of God to his own day, on any one recurrence of 
 it, confirms all our arguments for its hiestimable value. 
 Yes, blessed Sabbath! we will go forth to meet thee, as 
 thou revisitest man;i we will hail thee as the court 
 day of our Sovereign and Lord ; we will rejoice in thy 
 return as the open throne presented to us for approach- 
 ing our heavenly Father ; we will behold thee as testify- 
 ing of our Redeemer's resurrection — honour thee as the 
 peculiar province of the Holy Spirit, and as unitmg all 
 that can interest and bless man — creation with its na- 
 tural benefits — redemption with its remedial grace — 
 heaven with its consummating glories ! 
 
 ^ The ancient wise men used to gather their scholars together,, 
 and to say, " Come, let us go meet king Sabbath." — Lightfoot, 
 iii. 56, 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 THE GUILT WHICH IS CONTRACTED BY CHRISTIAN 
 NATIONS, IN PROPORTION AS THE LORD'S DAY 
 IS OPENLY PROFANED. 
 
 Nehemiah XIII. 17, 18. 
 
 Then I contended with the nohles of Judaic and said 
 unto them, What evil is this that ye do, and profane 
 the Sabbath-day ? Did not your fathers thus, and 
 did not our God bring all the evil upon us and upon 
 this city ? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by 
 profaning the Sabbath. 
 
 There remains yet another branch of the subject. We 
 mustappeal to the nations ofChristendom, and especially 
 our own. We must prefer against them the charge of 
 public connivance at the violation of the Sabbath. We 
 must call on every inhabitant, by his faith as a Chris- 
 tian, by the reverence he feels for his Creator and Re- 
 deemer, by his love to his country, by his regard to the 
 happiness of his neighbours 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 sin, and solemnly charge all classes of men to re- 
 pent and turn unto the Lord. 
 
 It is true the evil is gigantic, it spreads through all 
 oiders of persons, it fixes itself firmly in the corruption 
 of the human heart. It stands as the uncircumcised 
 champion of old, and defies the armies of the living God. 
 
 I 
 
170 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 But we must rely, like David, on another power than that 
 of man. We must take the word of truth. We must 
 go forth, as it were, with our sling and our stone, in the 
 name of the Lord God of Israel ; and must humbly be- 
 lieve that the enormous foe, as another Goliath, shall 
 fall before us. 
 
 And may it please Thee, O Almighty God, 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 fervour, 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 ob- 
 servation of thy holy day, and of the religious blessings 
 which attend it, in our own land and throughout all the 
 parts of Christendom ! 
 
 First, then, we must substantiate the charge, that the 
 nations are 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. 
 
 W^e 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 nations of Christendom and our own, we are aware of 
 the caution necessary. Having now no inspired prophets 
 or apostles to apply authoritatively the language of 
 Scripture, we can only form a judgment, from its evi- 
 dent scope, and the similar bearing of our privileges on 
 the one hand, and of our conduct on the other. We 
 must avoid all presumption, haste, self-confideng'e, per- 
 sonaHty. We must proceed on the general and un- 
 doubted grounds of revealed truth, as applicable to na- 
 tions and individuals ; and only claim attention as we are 
 evidently supported by the truth, and the plain facts of 
 the case. 
 
 What, then, constitutes, in a scriptural sense, na- 
 tional guilt ? Is it not the prevalence of any open> fla~ 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORDS DAY. 171 
 
 grant violation of the law of God, committed by large 
 classes of men ? Is it not the continued invention of new 
 modes of committing 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 
 gives to it ? Is it not the connivance at those enormi- 
 ties by legislators, ministers of state, magistrates, 
 clergy ? Is it not the general coldness and indiiference, 
 and even scorn, with which measures of prevention or 
 of remedy are received ? 
 
 And does not the violation of the Christian Sabbath 
 in the British nation, for with this I am most concerned, 
 comprehend everyone of these particulars P^ 
 
 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 sanctification of it be commensurate with Chris- 
 tianity itself; then what is the national guilt accumu- 
 lated every day amongst us ? Go through the different 
 orders of society in our country, and, after making every 
 allowance of the kindest charity, estimate the sins com- 
 mitted every Sabbath as it returns, by each class be- 
 fore the face of the Almighty. 
 
 Begin with the humble orders — the artisans, the 
 labourers, the agricultural workmen, the smaller trades- 
 people. How widely is Sabbath-breaking diff'used ! 
 Accounts settled, shops open, markets frequented, 
 workmen paid, business transacted, — calmly, systema- 
 tically, almost avowedly. 
 
 Consider the numbers engaged in furnishing enter- 
 tainment to the violators of the Lord's day, as well as 
 the violators themselves. The hotels, the inns, the tea- 
 gardens, the public-houses, the shops and stalls for 
 fruit and confectionary, the domestics and waiters oc- 
 cupied, beyond any plea of necessity, or any permission 
 of the law. 
 
 ^ In order to make this part of the sermon fully applicable to 
 other countries, an ocasional change of names and local circum- 
 stances may be necessary. 
 
 I 2 
 
172 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 Look at the environs of London generally — the thou- 
 sands poured out every Sunday into the fields and vil- 
 lages, for idleness, for pastimes, for intoxication, in open 
 profanation of the Sabbath. ^ Enter the unnum- 
 bered 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 influ- 
 ence 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 tradesmen, the merchants, the 
 soldiers, the lawyers, the physicians and medical prac- 
 titioners, the private gentlemen, the retired merchants 
 and traders, 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 Sab- 
 bath ? — I mean, what are too many of them engaged 
 in ? I am speaking of large numbers in each class, not 
 of everyindividual — 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 occupied about ? Is it 
 not in preparing entertainments? Is not their labour 
 tenfold that which the necessity of the Sabbath demands, 
 or its repose allows ? 
 
 You ascend to the gentry and nobility of our 
 land. They have, alas ! too generally " bftTKen the 
 yoke and burst the bonds" The law of the Sabbath 
 
 ' Two thousand five hundred persons were counted by a public 
 officer, one Sunday evening last summer, in one tea-garden — the 
 White Conduit House, Islington, near London — each having paid 
 6(7. at entering, besides what he might expend afterwards. Consider 
 the tax this is upon the poor. 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 173 
 
 is void to them. The day is the same as other days, 
 after an attendance on morning service, except as in- 
 creased festivity dishonours and abuses it— the same 
 irreligion, the same pride, the same neglect of God. In 
 too many cases, large festivals are given, crowded par- 
 ties assembled, an open infraction of decency committed. 
 How man}^ are there in public stations, where example 
 is most w^idely diffused, who have regularly Sunday 
 dinners during a certain portion of the year ! I ask if 
 the aggregate of these enormities do not outstrip mere 
 personal criminality, and form a distinct branch of na- 
 tional guilt ? 
 
 2. Then consider the continual invention of new 
 MODES OF SUNDAY VIOLATION, and of additional temp- 
 tations extended to new classes of persons. This marks 
 national 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. The number of copies circulated 
 every Sabbath is incredible. ^ Not content with leav- 
 ing it in the hands of the open infidel and enemy of 
 civil and religious order, it has been seized by some of 
 the avowed and clamorous friends of church and state, 
 and made a channel of private calumny and public ridi- 
 cule 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 innkeeper from the house of God— they 
 tempt our people to venture on Sunday JDurneys. Ves- 
 sels OF pleasure, impelled by steam, have just been 
 added to the invention of the Sabbath-breakers, and 
 thousands are conveyed on the Lord's day, during the 
 months of summer, to the various spots on our coast, 
 where pleasure and dissipation may drown conscience 
 and the remains of a pious education. Commercial spe- 
 
 * One of these journals boasts of a circulation each Sunday of 
 30,000 ! 
 
174 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. Vli. 
 
 culations for more expeditious travelling, by 
 means of the same process, are also calculated upon 
 the supposition of regularly and systematically profan- 
 ing, 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 violate 
 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 degrees to encroach upon the sanctity 
 of the holy day of God. " Hand joins in hand." One 
 encourages another. Religious repose and rest in God, 
 as a distinct duty of Christians, is more and more dis- 
 credited ; 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 princes 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 disavowal 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 cir- 
 cles of dependents, 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 em- 
 bolden 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, Sunday 
 diversions ? Do we not read, on every Monday, the ca- 
 talogue of the festivals, conversaziones, assemblies for 
 music — sacred music, as it is profanely termed — which 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 175 
 
 desecrated the preceding day ? And do not these evils 
 begin with those of the highest rank — with nobles, mi- 
 nisters 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 thou- 
 sands form their notions of morals 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 is A SINFUL CONNIVANCE on the part of legis- 
 lators, 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 gentry, clergy, and ma- 
 gistracy, have used such moral power as God and the 
 laws and usages of their country have committed to 
 them, for the honour 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 
 conscience speak. It is to the eternal God we appeal, 
 who is the searcher of every heart. Have not legis- 
 lators, and magistrates, both in their private and their 
 collective capacity, connived, and do they not connive, 
 at the violation of the holy law of the Sabbath ? Do 
 they not mock too often at its divine authority? Do they 
 not shrink from avowing 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 oc- 
 casions are perpetually lost for diminishing the evils of 
 Sabbath-breaking — that the miserable limits of the three 
 or four hours of public services are considered sufficient, 
 in the framing of acts of parliament, for the Sabbath ; 
 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 
 
176 NATIONAL GUILT OF [sERM. VII. 
 
 measures to be brought forward. Thus the influence of 
 persons in authority is on the whole decidedly unfavour 
 able; they discountenance spiritual religion; they refuse 
 to put into execution the laws actually in force, and they 
 decline preparing new ones — they frown on active indi- 
 viduals who would call on them to maintain the honour 
 of the day of God. How was the proposal of Sunday 
 drilling, for instance, 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 early petitions and remonstrances against Sun- 
 day newspapers rejected, and the later ones scorned 
 and contemned ? What attention has been paid to the 
 denial of the Sunday to the colonial slave,and to the atro- 
 cious evils of the Sunday market ? How, again, do indi- 
 vidual ministers of state, and individual magistrates, 
 receive the applications made for the suppression of Sab- 
 bath-breaking ? What encouragement does the con- 
 scientious clergyman, or minister, or parochial officer, 
 receive from the magistrates, in his attempts to check 
 the evil ? Where is the individual in either chamber of 
 parliament, now ready to take up the question concern- 
 ing 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 
 considering. The clergy have not, as a body, suffi- 
 ciently enforced the duty of the observation of the Sab- 
 bath : they have not expounded the doctrine — they have 
 not urged the authority — they have not protested as 
 they should against the violation — they have not sus- 
 tained, by a firm example, the honour of this holy and 
 most ancient of institutions — they have been cowardly, 
 tame, silent, indifferent. Too many of us have connived 
 sinfully at the enormous mischief — have shrunk from 
 
 1 Eclec. Rev. 1830. 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 177 
 
 measures of energy and courage — have rather "followed 
 the multitude to do evil," than struggled manfull}^, and 
 at all hazards, against the current. 
 
 The religious public also — who reverence and ob- 
 serve to a certain extent the Sabbath — have shared 
 and are sharing 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 unfavourable. 
 Their own example is in some things dubious. The es- 
 timate which their children and households form of the 
 Sabbath is low. They do not contend boldlj^, in pub- 
 lic and private, against the sin of dishonouring the day, 
 as their fathers did. Compare the last generation of 
 evangelical and pious Christian households 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 sanctification of the Lord's day, and to reme- 
 dial measures for retaining its honourable 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 continental 
 nations — thank God, much honour is still put upon the 
 holy appointment — thank God, a remnant of devoted 
 Christians in all ranks, not excepting the highest, conti- 
 nues to hallow it aright — thank God, " a pillar is raised, 
 as it were, on the border of the land unto the Lord." 
 Thank God, our iniquities, as we trust, are not yet full ; 
 and a revival of deep concern for religion, and for the 
 day of religion, is, as we hope, going on. But we must 
 still look the facts full in the face. Our real repentance 
 and reformation will depend on our conviction of our 
 actual delinquency. Have we, then, or have we not, as 
 a people, including the classes professing the peculiar 
 grace of Christ, departed from the Lord, in conniving and 
 sitting calmly by, when hiis name was polluted and the 
 
 i5 
 
178 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 Sabbath profaned ? Is not a portion of the indifference 
 and scorn poured upon this institution chargeable upon 
 us — us the ministers of rehgion — us the people of God ? 
 Would the names of reproach cast upon the religious 
 observation of the day, and upon those who sustain it, 
 be so keen, so opprobrious, so extended, if the standard 
 of general sentiment had been nearer that of the 
 Scriptures ? 
 
 Yes, brethren, as the various classes in the Jewish 
 nation at the timeof Nehemiah had departed from their 
 God, and had joined in polluting the Sabbath ; so have 
 too many of all classes in our own country departed 
 from their Saviour, and united, unconsciously in some 
 cases and imperceptibly, in conniving at the violation of 
 the Christian Sabbath. 
 
 It is time for us to return to the Lord. Steps have 
 been lately taken by persons high in authority, which 
 encourage hope of improvement. Let us, then, in 
 order to this, 
 
 H. 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, how- 
 ever wise, however free, however prosperous, can resist 
 the divine arm. Where is the empire of the Babylonians, 
 of the Medo- Persians, of the Grecians, of the Romans ? 
 'Where is the 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 favoured country, there was 
 hardly another vv^hich escaped the actual swordof war. 
 And in our own previous annals what scenes of blood- 
 shed, what overthrows of royal houses, what civil con- 
 tests, what changes, do not appear ! 
 
 I open the Bible, and I see that this fall of empires is 
 connected with the guilt of the different nations, and 
 especially of those which were the most eminently pri- 
 vileged. " You only have I known of all the families of 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 179 
 
 the earth ; therefore I will punish you for all your 
 iniquity." i Such is the divine rule of proceeding. " For 
 the time is come that judgment must begin at the house 
 of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be 
 of them that obey not the gospel of God ? "^ 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;"^ the measure is rising — 
 the augmented mass is noted by the divine eye — iniquity, 
 according to the prophetic vision, is seated within the 
 ephah ; the vassel 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 
 Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain, " suffering the 
 vengeance of eternal fire.^'^ I behold the old world 
 " filled with violence, and having corrupted its ways, till 
 the flood came and destroyed them all."^ I look on the 
 nations of Canaan, " that are sinners before the Lord 
 exceedingly, and the land cannot contain them."" 
 
 But mark, above all, the history of the favoured people 
 — the inheritance, the peculiar treasure of the Lord, the 
 kingdom of priests. And what is that history ? The 
 Assyrian king is sent against them when hypocritical and 
 degenerate — "he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart 
 think so" — but he is " the axe" in the hand of the di- 
 vine workman, 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 ? 
 W^hat is the weight of responsibility which presses upon 
 her in consequence ? VVhat is the aggravation which 
 all these blessings add to her sins against God ? For 
 
 ' Amos iii. 2. ^ i pg^^ j^. 17. ^ Gen. xv. 16. 
 
 * Zechariah v. 6 — 11. ^ Jude 7. 
 
 ^ Gen. vi. 12. ' Numb. xxxv. 33. 
 
180 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 wherefore has God given her these distinctions, but that 
 she may diffuse tlie divine glory, exhibit the conduct of 
 a righteous nation, uphold the honour of pure Christi- 
 anity, vindicate the majesty of the Lord's day, educate 
 her population in sound religion, and propagate the gos- 
 pel 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 extended, her riches 
 are not more abundant, her prosperity is not more ele- 
 vated, than the ships, and commerce, and glory, and 
 prosperity of Tyre were in her day ? 
 
 Consider, then, the judgment which England may 
 reasonably dread, in proportion to the duty which she 
 violates — in proportion to her knowledge of the Bible — 
 in proportion to her pure form of Christianity — in pro- 
 portion to the strength of the arguments on which the 
 divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's 
 day repose — in proportion to her means of estimating 
 these arguments, and detecting the contrary errors. Re- 
 flect how every such consideration should aggravate the 
 fear which penetrates us, of the awful displeasure of God 
 for our pollution of the Sabbath, i 
 
 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 
 nation 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 
 
 ' Let no one say he doubts the force of some of these grounds 
 of authority. Be it so. Take away any one of these grounds, 
 and the remainder binds the conscience of the inquirer. Nay, it 
 is observable, that no one Divine has yet written or spoken, (except 
 those who are really not, properly speaking. Christians,) that does 
 not acknowledge the obligation of sanctifying the Lord's day. A 
 few writers may place its authority on the New Testament ex- 
 amples only — 1 agree not with these writers — but their admission 
 is all I now want — for they all consent in admitting the duty of a 
 day of religious rest. 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 181 
 
 and honesty, are bound upon thee by thy immediate 
 secular interests — society cannot hold together for a mo- 
 ment without them. But the duties of the Sabbath are 
 a test of the real measure of thy faith and reverence to- 
 wards Almighty God. They show how far thou carriest 
 thy religion into practice. They prove whether or not 
 thy admissions of the authority of God are sincere. 
 Estimate, then, the guilt which all thy Sabbaths, Eng- 
 land, have been heaping upon thine head.^ Estimate the 
 contempt, the neglect of God, the declension of heart 
 from his fear, the hardy and obstinate resistance to his 
 will, the slight put upon his immediate majesty and ho- 
 nour, which thy conduct involves. The closing denun- 
 ciations against the apocalyptic churches will be appli- 
 cable to thee, if thou continuest to imitate those declin- 
 ing bodies. Fear the removal of thy candlestick, the si- 
 lencingof thy preachers, thedispersion 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 princes, 
 thy nobles given up to infatuation — thy enemies made 
 to triumph — thy name and place a proverb amongst the 
 nations. Consider, these are but the beginning of sor- 
 rows. Where are Sardis, and Pergamos, and Thyatira, 
 andEphesus, andLaodicea? Swept with thebesom of de- 
 struction — effaced from the memory of the church — ex- 
 hibited 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 re- 
 hgion, 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 ven- 
 ture not to penetrate his purposes. But thou hast every 
 
 * Every twenty years, more than a thousand Sundays pass. 
 
182 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 reason to fear. Around the profanation and contempt of 
 the Sabbath are gathered all the accompanying sins of 
 neglect of the gospel, self-righteousness, cruelty and in- 
 humanity to the colonial slave, an infidel and sceptical 
 temper — the Bible contemned, Christianity dishonoured. 
 The violation of God's day is the symptom, not the dis- 
 ease. It is an indication of the inward pride, impurity, 
 vanity, self-confidence, provocations of the Almighty, 
 which are filling up the measure of thine iniquities. 
 Thou art again warned. 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 gentry. Listen, governors 
 and legislators of the land. Receive 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, 
 
 in. 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 fuliy 
 return unto the Lord ? — By inquiring, how other na- 
 tions expressed their penitence ; how the reformations 
 took place in the time of Samuel, and Hezekiah, and 
 Jehoshaphat; how the revivals were effected under Au- 
 gustine in the fourth century, Claudius of Turin in the 
 ninth, Peter Waldo in the twelfth, and WicklifFe in the 
 fourteenth : how the glorious Reformation fromj^pery 
 in the sixteenth century was begun and established ? — 
 Each individual 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 m.inisters ; shame and perse- 
 cution were cheerfully endured for the cause of Christ ; 
 
 ' Micah vi. 9. 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 183 
 
 an unflinching protest was entered against the sins 
 which remained ; humiHation of soul under past trans- 
 gressions, and hope in the divine mercy for future de- 
 liverance and ultimate triumph, were exercised. Let 
 such, then, be our course now. 
 
 1. Let EACH ONE AMEND 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 ministers of the sanctuary should lead the way. 
 The holy Sabbath has much to complain of in us. Re- 
 verence it more, ye preachers and stewards of Christ, 
 sanctity it more. Study its authority more. Watch 
 against unfavourable habits more. Let your own con- 
 duct, and that of your families, give a more decided 
 testimony to the Lord, and to his blessed day. Heads 
 of families, begin each one of 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. Magistrates, propose a better 
 example ; execute the laws of which you are the guar- 
 dians. Awake to your first duties, the worshipping and 
 glorifying of your God. Merchants, " buy the truth, 
 and sell it not ;" close your offices and counting-houses 
 on the Sabbath ; refuse the unholy gain which Satan 
 offers. Tradesmen, farmers, artisans, consecrate your 
 labours to " the Lord of the whole earth." Servants, 
 clerks, dependents, honour the Saviour on the days 
 which he allows you as the period of rest, peace, com- 
 posure. Too long have you obeyed the world, the flesh, 
 and Satan ; now God calls you to repentance and consi- 
 deration. 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 amend 
 himself. 
 
 2. And let fervent prayer for the grace of the 
 Holy Spirit be offered up. God alone can effectually 
 do the work. All doctrine is vain without the opera- 
 tions of his Spirit. The fundamental truths of the gos- 
 pel, the glorious perfections and excellencies of God, 
 
184 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 the value of the soul, the inestimable worth of redemp- 
 tion, 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 de- 
 monstrations of the authority and obligation of the 
 Christian Sabbath to him who is dead in sin, careless 
 upon the subject of his salvation, and wedded to his 
 worldly lusts ? The heart of man has reasons against 
 all persuasions of theology ; the reasons ofevil inclination, 
 previous choice, corrupt habit, perverted associations of 
 thought. Prayer, then, for the mercy of God, is essen- 
 tial to success. Then Babel, so to speak, is deserted ; 
 then the walls of Jericho fall flat ; then Dagon is over- 
 thrown 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 rejoices in the interval from the 
 duties of this lower world : his food, his joy, his restora- 
 tion, 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 reve- 
 rence, the old rejoice in, the day of God. The ministers 
 of Christ will see unwonted audiences thronging around 
 them — fresh and deeper-toned devotion will preside. 
 National penitence for misused Sabbaths will appear in 
 the very cry for mercy which will ascend to heaven — 
 and from the sanctification of them in futufe, every 
 temporal and spiritual blessing will germinate. 
 
 3. As this proceeds, and in order to advance it, bold 
 AND DECISIVE APPEALS must be addrcsscd 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 press — addresses in the form of argument, and 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 185 
 
 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 
 honoured amongst the people. A national feeling in fa- 
 vour of the Lord's day can only be expected from a 
 revival, distinct and uncompromising, 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 and openness of heart; neither relaxing 
 the spiritual demands of the Sabbath, nor overrating the 
 relative magnitude of this particular branch of the public 
 guilt. Thus will God bless our nation ; thus will the holy 
 da}'^ 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 mi- 
 nisters. 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 authority, and guided their minds by the wis- 
 dom and counsels of well-informed and devoted ministers 
 of Christ, in the affairs relating to the worship of God, 
 and the souls of men. Instead of false teachers, corrupt 
 ecclesiastics, proud and worldly-minded priests — men 
 who have domineered, or fawned, as their interests and 
 power permitted ; and who have surrounded princes and 
 magistrates, and flattered them to their ruin ; God 
 blesses his servants with pious and simple-hearted bishops 
 and ministers, who understand the Scriptures, who know 
 the value of the Sabbath, who distinguish the true wel- 
 fare of srovernment, who discern and admit the claims of 
 God upon princes and rulers. With such aids, the secu- 
 lar magistrates will decree righteous statutes, the parlia- 
 ment will be swayed by sound religion, the measures 
 needful for protecting the worship of God will be taken. 
 
186 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 the oppression and insults of the profane will be redress- 
 ed, the open and national violation of God's Sabbaths 
 will be prohibited, the decent and devout order of a 
 Christian land will be preserved. These aids from with- 
 out, 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 
 REPROACH AND CONTUMELY which have always at- 
 tended 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 con- 
 tent to receive the treatment which their Lord and Sa- 
 viour received before them. And this deters the merely 
 well-disposed part of mankind ; they shrink from deci- 
 sive steps, for fear of shame and names of contempt. 
 The term Lollard at one period, of Wickliffite, Luthe- 
 ran, 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 v/ere to rise to persecution) 
 the Christian minister and hero must be ready to stand. 
 He must disregard the honour of men, that he may ob- 
 tain the favour of God : he must be proof against these 
 assaults : he must be willing to risk his name, his charac- 
 ter, his reputation, for his Saviour. The holy Sabbath 
 must be dedicated, consecrated, reverenced, under 
 whatever reproaches he may have to labour^^ho as- 
 serts 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 pe- 
 riod — many great evils may be expected to survive and 
 struggle —the spiritual church, if it gain, by the mercy of 
 
SERM. VII,] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 187 
 
 God, much, must reckon upon being discomfited in cer- 
 tain respects. She must, then, protest boldly and 
 
 FEARLESSLY AGAINST THE SINS WHICH ARE PERSISTED 
 
 IN. Nothing honours God more than the confession of 
 his truth, which his faithful servants make, when they 
 are unable to succeed fully in their honest endeavours. 
 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 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 con- 
 siderable number of worshippers, thus avowing their 
 allegiance, and crying out aloud against the dishonour 
 done unto his name and Sabbaths. 
 
 7. Lastly, humiliation for past transgressions, 
 
 AND HOPE IN THE DIVINE MERCY FOR FUTURE DELI- 
 VERANCE AND ULTIMATE TRIUMPH, are the dispo- 
 sitions of heart which we should 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 na- 
 tion and as individuals, we have abused in times past, 
 the dishonour we have done to it and to God thereby, 
 the loss to our own souls which has followed, the injury 
 to the spiritual welfare of others which has been occa- 
 sioned, the slight put upon the blessed Spirit of grace, 
 are topics of deep sorrow and penitential confession 
 before God. To humble ourselves under his awful 
 majesty, to deprecate his wrath, to accept the punish- 
 ment 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 suc- 
 cour ; 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 edifica- 
 
188 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 tion of his faithful servants, the pledge and anticipation 
 of heaven. 
 
 Having now completed our original design in these 
 seven sermons; having established the divine obligation 
 of a weekly Sabbath in the first four, and the practical 
 duties arising from it in the last three ; 
 
 Let us, in conclusion of the whole series, remark, 
 
 I. That it is not for the Sabbath in itself that we 
 have been pleading in the course of this M^ork, but the 
 SABBATH AS A MEANS TO CERTAIN ENDS, as the chan- 
 nel and conveyance of the waters of life, as the standing 
 institution for the declaration of God's glory, of the 
 Saviour's resurrection, the rest of heaven ; as the 
 moment of calm granted for rational and irrational crea- 
 tures 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 Bene- 
 factor, and the grand peculiarity of revealed religion. 
 
 Let, then, this thought ever be present with us. It is 
 for no inferior matter we have pleaded ; it is for no ex- 
 ternal 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 instruction, which is the 
 platform upon which every other is erected. \ye 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 mer- 
 ciful of all the divine appointments, which suspends the 
 struggle of nature, and bids all creation repose, and 
 refresh itself from its labour and toil. 
 
 Let us not, then, undervalue or misunderstand the 
 subject we have been treating. We have not been dri- 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD'S DAY. 189 
 
 veiling 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 ques- 
 tion 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 and other ends of the Christian Sabbath, because 
 
 of THE UNSPEAKABLE 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 ordinary employments to be dedicated to this 
 his immortal part. Yes, the Sabbath proclaims the re- 
 sponsibility of man, the unfathomable and inexpressible 
 value of his soul, the price put upon it by the Father of 
 spirits, the dignity and capacities 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 knowledge 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 hap- 
 piness 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, illumi- 
 nation, pardon, holiness, 'salvation, of all these immortal 
 minds, are congregated and concentered — 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, 
 
190 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 are poured forth and brought into effect. It is this sub- 
 lime thought which elevates the topic we have been con- 
 sidering. The violation of the Sabbath sinks, degrades, 
 materializes, destroys the soul of man; the observation 
 of it raises, honours, spiritualizes, saves it. If the Lord's 
 day be annihilated, religion fades away, secular pursuits 
 bewilder man, the bodily appetites prevail, the know- 
 ledge 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 
 succour, interrupts the din of false alarms, recalls him 
 from the clamour of passion to the soft voice of consci- 
 ence, 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 claim upon every reasonable 
 and accountable being, on the footing of its own divine 
 institution and authority. 
 
 Truth cannot be trifled with. Men may turn away 
 from any statement of it. They may cavih 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 under every dispensation of it. A Sabbath was 
 celebrated even before the fall. A Sabbath fora^ 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 details of its progress, is worse than 
 folly ; it is dishonesty to truth. Nor can we escape the 
 responsibility which attaches to knowledge proffered and 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 191 
 
 set 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 con- 
 vened, and resolutions passed to enforce the better obser- 
 vance of the day. The public conscience has been 
 aroused. God has given us a call, a special call, to re- 
 pent. 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 
 appeal. 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, aven- 
 ger. Let conscience stimulate us to hallow the Christian 
 Sabbath, 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. 
 
 IV. But, lastly, we have pleaded for the Sabbath, be- 
 cause it is an indispensable preparation for the hea- 
 venly BLESSEDNESS. Its appeal to the human con- 
 science terminates here. Heaven or hell is at stake. 
 We all profess to look for a heavenly rest. There are 
 few 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 de- 
 fective. Still a vague hope of it, as opposed to eternal 
 misery, and under the idea of a state of repose and feli- 
 city, occupies most minds. But let us consider the strict 
 connexion which subsists between the employments and 
 delights of the Sabbath upon earth, and those of that 
 endless and beatific Sabbath which "remains for the peo- 
 ple of God" at last. Do we recollect the descriptions 
 given in the Bible, of the company, the praises, the spi- 
 ritual and unceasing employs of that exalted place ? Is 
 it a carnal repose which it offers ? Is it bodily indul- 
 gence ? Is it mere cessation from toil and sorrow? No. 
 
192 NATIONAL GUILT OF [SERM. VII. 
 
 It is the eternal presence, the eternal enjoyment, the 
 eternal praises of our God, and the Redeemer. Open 
 the heavenly gates. You see the worshippers. You 
 hear their hymns. What do they chant? 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. And what is the tem- 
 per 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 holi- 
 ness, ceaseless adoration, perpetual activity in the service 
 of God. The loose ideas formed of heaven, as an ex- 
 emption from suffering merely, as standing only in oppo- 
 sition to fatigue and weariness, as being contrasted with 
 misery and condemnation — are most delusive. It is ho- 
 liness — it is the love of God — it is the worship 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 connexion of the Sabbath duties 
 here on earth with these ultimate and consummated du- 
 ties of the eternal Sabbath above. The employments of 
 the day here are holiness, the adoration of God in Christ, 
 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. 
 
 He that would prepare for heaven, must honour the 
 Sabbath upon earth. He that would hope for the spi- 
 ritual 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 
 Sabbath of the church triumphant. Were we in hea- 
 ven without a new nature, a change of heart, a delight in 
 the worship of God, an earnest longing after Christ, an 
 acquiescence in holiness — we should never derive hap- 
 piness from it, nor be capable of its employments. They 
 
SERM. VII.] VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 193 
 
 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 com- 
 plain 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 
 employments — 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 
 emblems 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 finally be again remembered that we disclaim 
 everything harsh, uncommanded, ceremonial — we dis- 
 claim the Jewish, and much more the Pharisaical obser- 
 vances — we say with our Saviour, " not man for the Sab- 
 bath;" we follow also with delight the change of the day 
 of celebration, authorised 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 adoration 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 Sabbath 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, 
 
 K 
 
194 NATIONAL GUILT, &C. [SERM. VII. 
 
 and perfect and uninterrupted spirituality, holiness, and 
 bleessednessin 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 ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
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