Library of Congress. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Chap Shelf. not knowing the Scriptures ; for have ye not read that you have an immortal soul within you which cannot die ? Passing on to the point in regard to the Deity being — not the God of the dead, but of the living, and that " the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob f." First, the mortality of the whole man, consequently his materiality, is here distinctly avowed ; and, if we have an immortal soul, then we can know nothing of a resurrection, which is a re-living — a re-existence; and, as the soul can- not die, it as a consequence, cannot "rise from the dead." /Secondly, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, either have risen or will rise. That the former opinion is probable will be seen in the remarks connected with the Apostle Paul ; but if the latter be esteemed the more correct one, it will equally support in this passage, that which is here * Matt. xxii. 29, &c f Luke xx. 38. THE TRANSFIGURATION, // contended for, and scripturally correspond with the ex- pression, that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," t. e. of those who will hereafter be raised to life, and who are now spoken of as living in the view and de cree of God*; and thus according with a passage in the Romans, that Abraham is the father of all believers, "As it is written, (I have made thee a father of many nations,) even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things ivhich he not (i. e. have not yet, but are in the determined council and foreknowledge of God designed to take place,) as though they weref;" (who regards the future Resur- rection as if it were present J.) Thus, upon either view of the case, whether Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be living or are to live, Dr. Jortin's conclusion is unsupported ; and the words of Jesus, so far from proving, tend to disprove Immaterialism. Under the same division of this controversy is ranked what is denominated the Transfiguration, and from thence is assumed the very point in debate ; for "the Evangelist informs us, 'Moses and Elias came and conversed with Jesus, and were seen and heard by those disciples who were present : as to Elias, he died not, but like Enoch be- fore him was taken up into heaven ; but of Moses it is written that he died and was buried/ This account, there- fore, is a fair intimation that good men continue to live and to act after they are released from this mortal body§." But to have made the Doctor's case a good one, it should have been related, that it was the immortal souls of Moses and Elias which conversed with Jesus. The qualities of which souls, be it remembered, are defined to be by na- ture aerial and immaterial, consequently not tangible to * See notes in Unitarian Version on this passage. f Rom. iv. 17- § Dr. Jortin's Sermons, p. 385. 78 THE TRANSFIGURATION. the touch, nor visible to the sight ; yet, in despite of such inherent properties, the Doctor admits that they " were seen and heard by those disciples who were present." With regard to the Transfiguration, there are two views taken of it : one, that it was a vision ; the other, that Moses and Elias did personally appear to Jesus on the holy mount; and whichever view of the transaction be the correct one, they alike fail in assisting the Immaterial doctrine. For if it was a personal appearance, it proves no more than this : That the distinguished messengers of God have been exclusively honoured with a continuation of existence; and it establishes the point, that if there are spirits, their properties are inconsistent with what is ascribed to them by the Immaterialist. If, on the other hand, it was a visionary appearance, the Immaterialist must concede, that a communication by vision has no kind of connexion with the existence of spirits, the re- lation being, that u Jesus took up with him Peter, and John, and James, into a mountain to pray; and behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem*." And doubt- less such a communication was designed for, and must have succeeded in, administering to the mind of Jesus, un- der all his subsequent exertions and sufferings, the most ef- fectual support. The effect, too, upon the Apostles would seem to have been very important ; " For (they declare) we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty ; and the voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount f." In regard to the cases of Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus, * Luke ix. 28. f 2 Pet. i. 16, &c. ENOCH. ELIJAH. JESUS. 79 they require but a very brief statement, — indeed, a literal quotation of the historical records will destroy the ar- guments of the Immaterialist. Of Enoch, it appears, that his days "were three hundred, sixty, and five years, and Enoch walked with God, (i. e. obeyed the will of God, walked in obedience to and had full confidence in God, "led a godly life/' "was well pleasing to God*,") he was not, for God took him (not his soul) away-f-." Of Elijah it is related, that when walking with Elisha, "he (not his immortal soul) went up into heaven'' (the air J); and of Jesus, that when he had ended instructing his Apostles, and he " had spoken these things, — while they beheld, he (not an immaterial spirit) was taken up, and a cloud received him (not his soul) out of their sight §." Now, if futurity can only be entered upon by immaterial spirits, "when released from this mortal body/' how, or by what means, can it be accounted for, that the Bible historians should have omitted to state a fact so impor- tant ; and that, also, in three most memorable cases, when the relation was inseparable from a faithful narra- tion? But, in addition to this circumstance, when Jortin's position is carried to its conclusion, it will be seen, that, if we are animated by an immortal spirit, he himself is the opponent of his own doctrine, by which, if it be true, not merely Enoch and Elijah, and " other good men con- tinue to live and to act," but all men, without distinction or discrimination, alike and immediately continue to live and to act when " released from this mortal body," and that, too, without regard to the declaration of Jesus, that "a time will come (not now is, or as yet ever has been,) when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of * See Geddes's Translation and notes. f Gen. v. 23, 24. I 2 Kings ii. 11, &c. § Acts i. 9. bU THE MISSTON OF JESUS. the son of God, and come forth ; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation*" (condemnation). The remaining points are those which relate to the belief (at least on the part of some,) of the Apostles in the exist- ence of spirits, and the fact that Jesus did not expressly and specifically correct such impressions. Rightly to ap- preciate this argument, it is necessary that we should re- cur to the situation of Jesus, and to the distinct objects for the promulgation of which he was commissioned ; such being to announce the divine promises towards man — the removal of the ceremonial parts of the Mosaic institutions — the proclaiming forgiveness of sins upon repentance — and the preparing men for the enlargement of that Church which should know neither Jew nor Greek, and which should cause all nations of the earth to be blessed ; and, finally, "to bring life and immortality to light:" — these being the mighty and all-important facts which the Mes- siah was commissioned to proclaim, we are not to look to his teachings as to an Encyclopedia, neither are we to expect from them that to which they lay no claim. A re- velation from God, of the comprehensive kind referred to, would, indeed, have been inconsistent with the develop- ment of intellect and individual exertion, to excite which ever appears characteristic of the divine government ; be- sides which, the communications enumerated above could not fail to establish in the minds of believers conceptions so definite, and principles so correct, that minor points of ignorance would necessarily vanish as the mind gained strength in the express doctrines of revelation. In ad- dition to these views, Jesus, in the use of popular lan- guage, had really no choice ; and it will be seen that, * John v. 28, 29. DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 81 upon the admission that his object was to be understood by those whom he addressed, the present case is of a similar description to that of his curing maniacal and epileptical diseases, which were supposed by the Jewish people to be caused by the afflicted parties having within them evil spirits. When such persons were restored to health, it was said that he "cast out" the possessing de- mon; and, upon some occasions, his own words are, ee I command thee to come out:" yet even by the enlightened immaterialist these words, which accord so expressly with the erroneous doctrines of demoniacal possession, are most correctly viewed, — not as teaching such opinions, but merely as being the unavoidable use of the language of his age and country. Thus, even in our own times, the use of words originating in popular ignorance might be supposed easy to be dispensed with ; yet even now our astronomers speak and write of the sun's rising and setting, and their meaning is not misunderstood by any, although their words (in the necessity of using which they have but little choice,) express the exact reverse of that which they believe and teach. A similar use of popular forms of expression occurs when Jesus went to his disciples after his resurrection. They, in common with most of the Jews as well as hea- thens, believed in angels and spirits ; and "they were terri- fied and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit." To have entered into a discussion with them for the purpose of correcting their superstitious opinions in this particular, would have been an abortive and unprofitable effort ; besides which, it would have diverted their minds from his chief object, such being to place beyond doubt the fact that he was the same Jesus who had been cru- cified : and this is at once effected, not by discussions upon the absurdities connected with spirits, and demons, G 82 SPIRITS. and ghosts, but by meeting them on their own ground, and making a reply which to them was unanswerable : "And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see ; for a spi- rit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet*." By this course his object was instantly gained; for he " opened their understanding, that they might under- stand the Scriptures; that thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : and that repent- ance and remission of sins should be preached unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem : and ye are witnesses of these things." So that, in calmly viewing the use by Jesus of popular phraseology, it appears that he had no choice; he must either have done so, or else have been silent : besides which, the difference will readily be admit- ted, between referring to an opinion and adopting it; for, in truth, if Jesus on this occasion taught and sanctioned the heathen doctrine of spirits, — then, as a consequence, when he declared "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon," he in an equal degree asserted the existence of the god Mammon, and consequently was a believer in the heathen mythology. And it may be submitted to the advocates of Immaterialism — how far their cause is aided, or by what authority they can avail themselves of that class of popular superstition which confers bodily forms upon spiritual ap- pearances ? for, according to their theory, the soul is imma- terial and aerial, neither tangible to the touch, nor visible to the sight : and, consequently, without some such expla- nation of the remark of Jesus, their cause will not be sup- ported, nor can they be allowed to avail themselves of the prejudices of those who thought — u they saw a spirit." * Luke xxiv. 38, &c. 83 CHAPTER V. INTERMEDIATE STATE. " As to the consequences of the present question, it appears, that, on the one side," (that of materialism,) "there is nothing more than a temporary cessation of thought, which can hurt nobody, except the self-interested papist, whose gainful system of purgatory is by this means overturned, or the self- sufficient deist, whose claim to an in- herent principle of immortality is shown to be vain and groundless: but on the other side," (that of immaterialism,) "there is a manifest derogation from, if not a total subversion of, that positive covenant, which professes solely to entitle us to everlasting life; all proper and consistent notions of death, a resurrection, and future judgement, are confounded ; in fine, all the great sanctions of the Gospel rendered un- intelligible or useless." — Bishop Law's Theory of Religion, Postscript, 437, 438, &c. An intermediate state of conscious and active exist- ence, which is said to be entered upon immediately at our death, and to continue until the resurrection, will form the subject of this chapter. And, before entering upon the ar- guments by which this doctrine is advocated, it ma}^ be well to premise, that the Scriptures are most clear and distinct in what they communicate relative to man's future con- dition ; uniformly setting forth that that state is to com- mence at the resurrection, — that we shall not live again till the resurrection, — that mankind will not be judged before the resurrection, — that the faith, labours, and suffering of believers are unprofitable and perish if there be no resur- rection*. Such being, unequivocally, the doctrines of the Scriptures, the supporters of immaterialism have natu- rally felt them to be incompatible with their hypothesis : for if an immortal soul be an essential part of a living * See Law's Theory, Appendix. g2 84 PURGATORY. man, then, of necessity, future existence does commence before the resurrection ; and the faith, labours, and suf- ferings of believers do not, nor can they, perish, even if a resurrection never takes place. Thus situated in regard to doctrines so opposed as those of Immaterialism and a Resurrection from the dead, their supporters have had recourse to heathen sources ; and from thence, and not from the Scriptures, have deduced an hypothesis, which is thus described: "In the interval between death and the resurrection, there is an Intermediate State, in which the departed souls of the good are supposed to have an im- perfect reward, and the souls of the wicked an imperfect punishment." And whilst the Scriptures may be looked to in vain for a description of this " interval between death and the resurrection," its origin may readily be discovered among the comparatively consistent immaterialists of the heathen nations, who believed souls to be an emanation of that intellectual fire by which the universe is animated ; and that when they are released from the body, they re- turn to God; but that, previously to such return, they have "an interval," by being placed in an "intermediate state" for the purpose of being purified from the conse- quences of their late pollution. So early as the second cen- tury, Origen and other "Fathers" incorporated this system with the Christian doctrine of future existence, and from thence the Catholic " Purgatory " was immediately de- rived; so that this essential branch of the doctrine of immaterialism became one of great influence, and of profit too, to the Romish Church, into which it was introduced by Gregory in the sixth century, was honoured with an infallible affirmation in the year 1140, and so continued till the Reformation, when most of the Reformers being conterit with a small degree of refinement upon Catholicism, merely prohibited prayers for the souls of the deceased. LUTHER. CALVIN. 85 To such general belief in the truth of imrnaterialism Luther, in the earlier part of his life, was a singular ex- ception. In his Defence, (published 1520,) which was condemned by Leo X ., he states, " I permit the Pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful, such as that he is emperor of the world, king of heaven, and God upon earth — that the soul is immortal", with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals*." On the latter point, however, Luther seems to have stood nearly alone : neither does it appear that he evinced much perseverance in its defence, opposed as it was to the decrees of the Church of Rome on the one hand, and to the prejudices of his brother Reformers on the other; and, indeed, the latter announced that " Faith requires that we should think that the dead are not nothing, but that they truly live before God ; the pious happily in Christ, the wicked in an horrible expectation of the reve- lation of divine judgement." But it will be found that anything rather than uniformity of opinion, as to the con- dition of souls in this " intermediate state," has prevailed and does prevail among its supporters; and that while the decree above quoted apportions to the wicked " an hor- rible expectation of the revelation of divine judgement," — Calvin is content to deal only with the souls of "the faith- ful;" for, "it is nothing to me," he observes, "what be- comes of their souls," (the wicked,) " I will only be re- sponsible for the faithful." The more modern defenders of the doctrine abound also with contentions with each other; first, as to the place and condition of all souls, whether virtuous or vicious; secondly, as to the union of the same soul with the same body at the resurrection ; and thirdly, as to those passages of Scripture which expressly reserve all hopes of future life, of punishment, and of reward, * Luther's Defence. SO SLEEP OF THE SOUL. until the resurrection. Out of these difficulties and con- tentions have arisen a sect of semi-immaterialists, who, while they succeed in proving that neither reward nor punishment can take place until the resurrection, yet they most inconsistently contend that man is animated by a soul ; and, for the purpose of reconciling all parties and every inconsistency, they assert that this quality of man, immortal and self-existent as it is, becomes, at the disso- lution of the body, partially non-existent, being until the resurrection in a state of sleep or insensibility. To this absurd position Bishop Warburton, who it will be seen was at least consistent in his immaterialism, makes a reply possessed of much force : "Their sleep of the soul is mere cant ; and this brings me to consider the sense and con- sistency of so ridiculous a notion. Now sleep is a modi- fication of existence, not of non-existence; so that the sleep of a substance hath a meaning — the sleep of a qua- lity is nonsense*." If there is such a state, it is of the first importance that the fact should have been distinctly communicated ; and if the doctrine is scriptural, we are entitled to ask for the law and the testimony, and in fairness to require that the passages shall be as clear and as decided, because equally required to be so, (and from being an essential part of the doctrine of futurity, they, if true, would and must be so,) as the declarations of Jesus and his Apostles relative to a resurrection from the dead and of a future judgement. But as some proof of the entire want of such evidence, there is upon record a candid and certainly a very extraordinary confession of one of the ablest defenders of this doctrine, in which, so conscious is the writer of the want of scrip- tural authority, that he is compelled to admit that "the in- termediate state between death and the resurrection is a * Bishop Warburton's Strictures on the Sleep of the Soul. RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 87 subject upon which the Scriptures have not said so much as one could wish*" From such an admission then, and from such an authority too in this controversy, it will be allowed that, in fairness of argument, the discussion might, as it regards the evidence, nearly terminate; but that there are other defenders of the same doctrine, who, while their arguments prove that they are not in a better condition than the reverend Doctor, yet seem to have either more faith or less ingenuousness than he possessed; and who contend that there are " many expressions of Scripture, in the na- tural and obvious sense, which imply that an intermediate and separate state is actually to succeed death f." On account of its assumed importance, as well as to give effect to the subjoined remarks, I shall quote the whole of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, as recorded by Luke, who thus represents Jesus as addressing his disci- ples as well as the Scribes and Pharisees : — " There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine lineiij and fared sumptuously every day : and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, * Dr. Jortin's Sermons. ■f Dr. Campbell's Preliminary Dissertations, Part II. OO RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. between us and you there is a great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence*.'' This parable can admit of but one of two modes of interpreta- tion, — either it must be viewed as figurative, or literal : if the former, then the connexion in which it occurs, the cir- cumstances which gave rise to it, the definite object for which it was delivered, and the admitted character of al- legorical instruction, — are essential to its being correctly understood : if the latter, then every circumstance enu- merated must be taken literally as they are related ; and, indeed, so necessary do some of the defenders of an inter- mediate state esteem a literal interpretation, that, in an answer to Priestley published in 177&, it is stated that "we should never presume to stray from the express, ob- vious, literal meaning." Bound then by such conditions, we look at this parable, and bear in our minds that the soul of man is described by its advocates to be spiritual — not visible to the sight ; that it takes its flight immediately upon the dissolution of the body, to inhabit a state which is thus described : that " whilst the good enter into a state of peace and comfort, the wicked are properly condemned to an insensible con- dition till the last day calls them forth f/' IAterally 9 then, it appears, that Lazarus, — not an immortal soul, but that the "beggar" Lazarus, "full of sores," — was imme- diately upon his death carried by angels and deposited in the bosom of Abraham ; — that the rich man at his death was placed not in an "intermediate state; " not in Dr. Jor- tin's u insensible condition till the last day;" but was in hell " tormented in flame ;" — that the receptacle for the virtuous is so immediately in the neighbourhood of that for the wicked, that the parties can see each other, — that * Luke xvi. f Dr. Jortin's Sermons. INTERMEDIATE STATE. 89 they can hold familiar conversation together; — that Abra- ham, though on the other "side of the gulf" and in heaven, is still the " Father " of the wicked in hell; and that the aforesaid wicked are acknowledged by Abraham to be his sons: and that, finally,, if it be contended that it was not the living, but the immortal soul of Lazarus that was in Abraham's bosom, and the immortal soul of the rich man that required a drop of water to cool its im- mortal tongue, — then immaterial spirits can be burned by material fire ; and though not visible to the sight, nor tangible to the touch, could go to the rich man's "father's house/' to his five brethren, and could " testify unto them," lest they also came to the like place of torment. — This, literally, is the fair interpretation of this parable, teaching, as it is said to do, u the immediate transition of the soul into one or other of these two different states, which is observable in the narration or parable itself, from their death to their succeeding state of happiness or mi- sery*." And we might, perhaps, leave to our adversaries the solution of their own difficulties, and the reconciling of such direct contradictions in their system as flow from applying this parable to the support of the doctrine of an intermediate state of existence. One, indeed, among their number has felt it judicious not to hazard too large a por- tion of his faith upon the present parable, and admits, that it is " not a representation of an intermediate state, but of the final state of the righteous and the wickedf ." This admission of the reverend immaterialist is completely and to the fullest extent giving up the point in debate : but still it may be shown that it is not even a representation of " the final state of the righteous and the wicked," much less that for which Macknight puts in a * See Bulkley's Discourses on the Parables of the New Testament. t Bishop Warburton. 90 PARABLES. claim, — " that it teaches us that the souls of men are im- mortal ; that they subsist in a separate state after the dissolution of the body ; and that they" (Query — in such state,) u are rewarded or punished according to their ac- tions in this life*." From the preceding chapter it will be seen that the u Pharisees and Scribes murmured" at the teaching of Jesus, and that he " spake parables unto them;" this teaching by parables being u that kind of alle- gory which consists of a continued narration of a fictitious event, applied by way of simile to the illustration of some important truthf." The design of Jesus in the several parables in the present connexion would appear to be, to show that his attention to u publicans and sinners" was agreeable to the will of God; to expose the self-righteous Jews, who " justified themselves before men;" to correct avaricious dispositions — "for the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him;" and wisely and by gradual steps to exhibit to his disci- ples and others the true character of God, and exhibit a knowledge of the divine dispensations in developing the covenant with Abraham, by the calling in of the Gentiles. To these objects the present parable and that of the Pro- digal Son, with which it is connected, appear to be espe- cially directed : — in the latter the eldest son, in the for- mer the ee certain rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen," are the representatives of the proud and privileged Jew ; exactly those characters, some of whom w T ere then near Jesus, and who, though "highly esteemed among men, were an abomination in the sight of God:" — in the one case the outcast son, in the other the despised beg- gar, appear to be the representatives of the Gentiles. But " the law and the prophets were until John ; since * Macknight, vol. ii. p. 294. f Bishop Lowth's Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. ANGELS. 91 that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." (Luke xvi. verse 16.) The middle wall of partition being thus broken down by the admission into the church (since the proclamation of John) of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, such as entered into it were carried by angels* — by messengers, — that is, by Jesus and his Apostles, — into Abraham's bosom — into the kingdom of God; that kingdom or church which originated with Abraham, and the enlargement of which at the time of Jesus being misunderstood by the Jews, they in their turn became the outcasts. They had received their "good things," and the Gentiles their "evil ones;" but now they were comforted, and the Jews were tormented ; because they would not hear Moses and the prophets : neither were they persuaded when one did rise from the dead. The angels which kept not their first estate, spoken of in Jude, I notice merely because it has been adduced in this controversy ; though, as being evidently unconnected with it, that notice will be necessarily brief. "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day." (verse 6.) Whatever opinions the phraseology of this passage may have given rise to, that of authorizing the doctrine of an intermediate state for the souls of men it * "The word angel is not properly a denomination of nature, but of office ; denoting as much as nuncius, messenger, a person employed to carry one's orders, or to declare his will." — Eees's Cyclopaedia, "Angel." "The Greek word we render angel does, in its primitive sense, signify nothing more than messenger ; and accordingly, in James ii. 25, it is the same Greek word that is rendered angels in other passages that is there rendered messengers." — See Goadby, vol. iv. p. 910. 92 SPIRITS IN PRISON. is not chargeable with ; for it speaks not of men, not of souls, not of a state of darkness for the souls of men; nor does it give the slightest countenance to Bishop Bull's general theory, — that "the souls of all the wicked are presently after death in a state of very great misery, and yet dreading a far greater misery at the day of judge- ment *." Preaching to the spirits in prison. — " By which also he" (Jesus) "went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by waterf ." From these verses it has been contended, that the Apostle assumes an intermediate state of conscious existence ; but it does not appear to have any reference to an intermediate, or, indeed, to any state of future existence. Peter commences his letter by addressing it to the believers " scattered abroad;" ex- horting them to withstand persecution, such being "the trial of their faith,'' (which was "more precious than gold, which perisheth;") and as an example to them, the sufferings of Jesus are referred to, " that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but * A correct understanding of this passage will show, that besides being wholly irrelevant to the doctrine of an intermediate state, it is also free from sanctioning another most absurd hypothesis, in support of which it is universally brought, — that of fallen angels ; — the parties referred to by Jude being the messengers (as recorded in Num- bers xiv.) who were sent to spy out the land, and who for bringing up a "false report" lost their "first estate," or the pre-eminence which as " rulers " they had possessed. For a full and convincing support of these ideas, consult Bekker, and also Goadby's Bible, vol. iv. 910, &c. ; and for passages illustrative of the peculiar phraseology of the verse, see Job x. 21, &c; and Acts iii. 24. f 1 Peter iii. 19, 20. SPIRITS IN PRISON. 93 quickened by the spirit;" that is, raised from the dead by the spirit of God — "by the power of God*." The same idea is expressed by Paul, though in somewhat dif- ferent language : "Though he was crucified, yet he liveth by the power of Godf :" by which (power or authority) " he went and preached unto the spirits " (persons) " in prison;" or, in other language, to those whose "minds " were imprisoned ; being in that state of darkness which in the succeeding chapter is represented as one of death : "for the Gospel was preached also to them that are deadj;" that is, "dead in trespasses and sins." And thus, such persons — spirits — being morally and mentally in prison, to them Jesus, by preaching (proclaiming) the Gospel, broke their fetters, and released them from prison, in the sense in which moral delivery is spoken of in Isaiah : — " The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, to proclaim li- berty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound §." Thus a close attention to the connexion becomes essential, and also a reference to the peculiar phraseology ; and this will be more fully seen in Isaiah's prophecy of the mission of him who, in Peter's language, preached to the spirits in prison : — "I the Lord have called thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house ||." Looking, there- fore, at the language of corresponding passages as to what the "state" was in which they were placed, and who the spirits were to whom Jesus "preached" this passage ceases to be of difficult solution. But had not Isaiah thus fur- nished an easy illustration, the connexion of the Apostle's * See Goadby's Bible, vol. iv. p. 863; marginal reading of Barker's Bible; and Wynne's Testament, vol. ii. p. 437. f 2 Cor. xiii. 4. : 1 Peter vi. 1, &c. § Isaiah lxi. 1. || Isaiah xlii. 6, &c. 94 SPIRITS IN PRISON. argument in the after verses would have effected that object; the intention of the writer being to draw a parallel between those persons who were in a state of mental darkness in the days of Noah and in the apostolic age ; which inten- tion would have been rendered more obvious, if our trans- lators had introduced a single supplemental word, as they have so frequently done in other instances, to express the sense of the original ; and the passage would then have stood thus — " By which he went and preached to the spi- rits in prison, which sometime " — or, as the original im- ports, informer time — "were disobedient; as when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah," &c. And to complete his parallel, it will be seen the Apostle proceeds to show that the ark was then the means of saving the believers of the antediluvian world, as baptism, or a pub- lic acknowledgement of the messiahship of Jesus, was the means of saving the believers in the Jewish w r orld. Such, then, appearing to be the Scriptural import of" preaching to the spirits in prison," we submit that the hypothesis relative to immaterial spirits, and their residence in an in- termediate state, has, in this connexion, no countenance. Also, whilst the views of Law, Priestley, and others, in some particulars upon this passage, would seem to be hardly satisfactory, yet their opinions afford no aid to the immaterialists. For although these writers apply it to the Gentiles only, this application of it to both Jews and Gentiles, to all in fact whose minds were u in prison," is only a more extensive use of the same principles of argument. And should an exception be taken to these views, from the fact that Jesus did not preach to the Gen- tiles, the reply is ready, — that his authorizing the Apostles to do so will, in Scriptural language, be the same thing. Thus Paul to the Ephesians, "For he" (Jesus) "is our peace, who hath made both one : and came and preached SPIRITS OP JUST MEN. 95 peace to you" (Gentiles,) "which were afar off) and to them that were nigh*." The "spirits of just men made perfect f," and "the SOULS OF THEM THAT WERE SLAIN FOR THE WORD OF God J/' are the passages which next claim attention. To commence with the former., of which the following expla- nation has been offered ; it " signifies the best state to which an unembodied spirit can come ; but that after the day of judgement^ spirits will then be embodied; that "as soon as good Christians depart out of this life, they will join the company of them" — {i.e. unembodied spirits.) The pas- sage, however, will be seen to fail completely in proving the point for which it is adduced ; for it relates to believers, in the present state of existence, and to the distinguished honours and privileges to which they are called ; and has no reference to immaterial spirits, or to a state prior to the re- surrection, in which such spirits will be " made perfect ." The writer, in figurative and bold language, exhorts those whom he addresses to " follow peace with all men, with- out which no man shall see the Lord : looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. . . . For ye are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born, and to God the judge of all ; — to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant §." In a corrected translation, this passage reads thus : " Ye are come to the general assembly and congregation of the first-born, and to God the judge of all, and to just men made perfect ||." But if this translation be questioned, and the word "spirits" retained, still there is not any- thing in the passage expressive of immaterial existence, * Ephes. ii. 1/, &c. f Heb. xii. 23. J Rev. vi. 9. § Heb. xii. 14, 23, &c. || The Epistles of Paul the Apostle, &c. by Thomas Belsham, vol. iv. p. 701. 96 SOULS SLAIN. distinct and separate from the entire living man in the present life. Mr. Belsham, however, defends his omis- sion of "spirits," both by a reference to the original, and the use of the term in parallel passages ; from which he ably contends, " The spirit of a man, is a man him- self ; the spirit of God, is God himself*; the spirit of Timothy, is Timothy himself f : the spirits of just men, therefore, are just men themselves By this in- terpretation the writer appears to be intelligible and con- sistent; but if by 'the spirits of just men made perfect' we understand separate souls in an intermediate state, the observation is not only irrelevant, but it is not true ; for in what sense can believers in Christ be said to be now introduced into the society of spirits in heaven? or what privilege have they in this respect above good men under the law? \" And the perfection here spoken of is clearly that which, as members of the " assembly of the first- born," they ought to attain to, because of the superior privileges the Gospel confers upon them; and can have no reference, as Dr. Priestley has observed in his notes on this passage, to any condition of good men, or of spirits, in a future world. In the Revelations, the passage in which the writer states, " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held §," though adduced with much confidence, has not that which perhaps might be conceded to some of the preceding passages, — even the semblance of an argument in its fa- vour ; for the "souls" in this case should be "lives;" and then, the representation of such being under the altar, will be seen to be perfectly appropriate; forming, as the verse does, * See 1 Cor. ii. 11. f See 2 Tim. iv. 22. I The Epistles of Paul the Apostle, by Thomas Belsham, vol. iv. p. 701. § Rev. vi. 9. SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR. 97 part of a most highly figurative representation of the open- ing of the six seals ; in which the stars from heaven are said to be falling, and the mountains and islands moving out of their places : and the particular allusion in the sixth verse, appears to be borrowed from the practice at the altar of victims in the temple ; at the foot of which altar the blood (the life — the soul) was poured out, which blood being close to the sanctuary, it was supposed that it apprized God of the sacrifice that had been offered to him, and that he saw it ; thus the lives of those who had sacrificed themselves in the cause of Revelation, are here, in bold and beautiful language, described as being under the altar, in the sight of God. From these passages we turn to one which, chronological- ly, should have had the precedence, — Saul and the Witch of Endor*, which some adduce to prove the existence of immortal souls, and also an intermediate state for their reception. Thus, Causin contends that the return of souls, as in the case of the prophet Samuel, is appointed by God to prove their immortality. A modern writer also asserts that " we have one remarkable instance of a phantom, or appearance, in the form of Samuel the prophet ; and it is not improbable that it was the departed spirit of Samuel himself, appearing, not by the incantation of the witch, but by the will of God, to denounce his awful vengeance against Israel f." Patrick maintains that it was an evil spirit in the likeness of Samuel that appeared before Saul J: and others have supposed that the appearance of Samuel to Saul was a divine miracle § . In forming a judgement of this case, it may be well to glance at the characters * 1 Sam. xxviii. f The Case of Saul, by Granville Sharpe, p. 155 — 157- % See Patrick on 1 Sam. xxviii. 12. § See Dr. Waterland's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 267. H 98 EVIL SPIRITS. who are represented as acting in it: — First, the king of Israel, who upon disobeying the commands of the Deity was told, that "the Lord had rejected him from being king over Israel/' and who in all his subsequent engage- ments with the enemies of Israel was uniformly unsuc- cessful; and the cause of such disasters was known by the whole people to be, that the God of Israel had rejected Saul from reigning over his chosen people; in consequence of which he was oppressed with melancholy, (i. e. "an evil spirit came upon him;") "and when he saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly troubled him : and he inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him not. Then said Saul unto his ser- vants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may inquire of her." The second personage in this re- presentation is the woman so selected, one whose occu- pation agreed with the necromancers of the heathen na- tions, " who summoned the spirits of the dead to appear before them ; and who carried on their trade in subter- ranean caverns, which were well calculated to ensure suc- cessful imposition*." But the God of Israel had prohi- bited the exercise of such arts ; commanding his people, that "When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, there shall not be one who maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observance of times, or an en- chanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with fa- miliar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer ; for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and be- cause of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before theef." The third character assumes to be that of Samuel, whom " all Israel, from Dan even to * See Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. iv. p t 83 — 92. 8vo edit. 1814. f Deut. xviii. WITCHES. 99 Bersheba, knew to be a prophet of the Lord," and who, when he " died, all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ra- man." These facts being premised, we approach the chapter un- der examination, in which the defenders of Immaterialism would fain make God to sanction that which he had so- lemnly denounced as an abomination in his sight; and which is supposed to confer upon one whom he had commanded to be "cast out of the land," the power to raise from the dead even a prophet of God, and through whose instru- mentality, although Jehovah would not answer Saul, "nei- ther by dreams, nor by urim, nor by prophets," yet he is made to answer him by the power of one that had " a fa- miliar spirit:" for it is puerile in Mr. Granville Sharpe to attempt to get over this difficulty by asserting that the communication was not made "by the incantations of the witch, but by some respectable agent of the divine will," — the text being, "Then said the woman (to Saul), Whom shall / bring up unto thee ? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice # ," &c. So that to the immaterial system may be well left whatever benefit it can derive from the serious imputations which such an hypothesis casts upon the divine government. Besides which, how can immaterialism be reconciled with the present relation ? and how can that which is spiritual and not visible to the sight, be seen to be "an old man covered with a mantle" ? But the whole case is clearly one of imposition dex- terously practised upon the weak, desponding, and super- stitious mind of Saul, and effected clearly by the practice of the art of ventriloquy. " The term ( ventriloquus ' is compounded of venter, belly, and loquor, to speak; and is * Deut. chap, xviii. verses 11 and 12. h2 100 VENTRILOQUISM. applied to persons who speak inwardly, so that the voice proceeding out of the thorax seems to come from some distance, and in any direction." See the Work of M. de la Chapelle, published in 1772, in which is shown that in the case of Saul, the speech supposed to be addressed to him by Samuel, proceeded from the mouth of the sorceress of Endor, and that the ancient oracles derived their influ- ence from the exercise of this art ; and a reference to the original will tend to aid this view of the case : — the He- brew of the "familiar spirit" of the witch, is "ob," and the plural "oboth;" and such persons were afterwards denominated "Pythonesses," thereby implying a pre- tence to divination : accordingly, in the Vulgate version of 1 Sam. xxviii. 7> 8, the word used is "Python:" be- sides which, the witch must have necessarily known Saul, who "from his head and shoulders was taller than any man" in Israel. Saul throughout the whole performance did not of himself see Samuel; the relation is — "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice," &c. And Saul said to her, "What sawest thou? And he said unto her, What form is he of ? " And when she had answered the foregoing question, Saul " perceived," or acknowledged from the representation of the witch, that it was Samuel. Thus the deception upon Saul com- pletely succeeded 5 and he " stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself." And it is especially de- serving of remark, that the whole of the after-relation made to Saul, while thus prostrate before the sorceress, consists in a repetition of what had been long previously announced concerning his rejection by God, and of the triumph of the Philistines over him, and which was known to the Jewish people at large. Thus the whole case in reference to Saul admits solely of being viewed, on the part of the witch, as a successful juggle. THE CRUCIFIXION. 101 " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise " is a fa- vourite passage in this controversy : but it may be shown that it in no way warrants the application made of it; and indeed the genuineness of the passage itself is also a fair subject of dispute. The fact is recorded by Luke only, who was not present, and who probably had not even seen Jesus. It is not mentioned by John, who witnessed the whole scene of the crucifixion. By Mark it is not re- ferred to. Nay, more : it is absolutely contradicted by Matthew, who states that "the thieves" (i.e. both) "joined with the priests and those that passed by, in reviling Jesus;" whereas the passage in Luke speaks of one only as reviling, and of the other as being favourable towards Jesus. The critical part of the argument on this subject has been thus shortly but well summed up in a note of the Improved Version. "This verse was wanting in the copies of Marcian and other reputed heretics, and in some of the older copies in the time of Origen ; nor is it cited either by Justin, Irenasus, or Tertullian; though the two former have quoted almost every text in Luke which relates to the crucifixion, and Tertullian wrote concerning the interme- diate state." The silence of such writers as these, desirous as they constantly were of supporting their Pagan notions by a constant reference to the Christian writers, may be taken as affording strong evidence against the genuineness of the passage; but still, the following explanation has been given of this passage in reference to the meaning of the original word rendered "paradise," which, to say the least, is extremely ingenious. Of the phrase itself there is a full explanation in Parkhurst, 8vo edition, p. 498. Paradeisos was considered by the Greeks as a barbaric phrase, being borrowed by them from the Persians. It has been sup- posed to be compounded from a Hebrew word to sepa- rate, and an Arabic one to hide, signifying a secret inclo- 102 PARADISE. sure or a hidden place of separation. Thus in one sense it signified a garden, park, or inclosure (like those of the Oriental monarchs), which are spoken of as " paradises full of everything beautiful and good that the earth can produce/ 5 In this sense the word appears to have been used by the LXX. (Hez. ii. 8; Eccles. ii. 5,) and probably by the writer of the Book of Revelations. The man re- quested that Jesus should " remember him when he came into his kingdom," that is, into his temporal kingdom, it being absurd to assume that an individual so circum- stanced should have more extended views on this sub- ject than the very Apostles themselves. The answer of Jesus, it is held, contains a feeling but dignified re- proof; "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (the hidden state) ; as though he had said, " It is in vain to employ your last moments on subjects of temporal and earthly greatness, when you, like me, shall this day repose in the silence and obscurity of the grave." Verses 52 and 53 of the 27th chapter of Matthew, where- in is related that the graves were opened, and the saints arose and went into the holy city, after the crucifixion of Jesus, is clearly an interpolation : for as to who those " saints " were ; for what object they arose ; to whom they went ; by whom they were seen ; what they com- municated ; or what afterwards became of them, — are all points upon which there is not the slightest information : besides which, the statement occurs in one historian only; an omission on the part of the others, which, had it re- lated to some trifling circumstance, would not have re- quired particular remark, but which in so extraordinary an occurrence as this is related to be, cannot, consistently with truth, be easily accounted for. Besides which, even taking the verse as it stands, it is not the souls of the SLEEP. DEATH. 103 saints in an active state of existence, but " many bodies of the saints, which slept, arose." We have now but very briefly to notice those expres- sions of the Scriptures which are said to " imply an in- termediate state;" the first and chief of such being the Scriptural use of the term " sleep;" which is thus argued: — "Death, you say, is sleep. What is sleep ? Is the mind, during this torpor of the body, utterly and always void of thought ? Death, if it reduces the mind to a total insen- sibility, must be something more than sleep ; for in sleep there is often a strong consciousness at least, if not a kind of separate existence* " And it is contended, that " to sleep," or " to sleep with their fathers," is only " a state of inaction, or kind of insensibility, during which we still existf ." To which the reply is offered, — that in the Scrip- tures, as in other writings, sleep is often used in a figurative sense, to express death : in proof of which, take the cases, first, of Stephen; of whom, when he was put to death, it is said he "fell asleep;" and, secondly, that of Lazarus, — "Our friend Lazarus sleep eth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, If he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death : but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Laza- rus is dead%" So that the play upon the word "sleep" will not be of avail to the immaterialist ; for, most clearly, in the passages in debate "death" is not merely some- thing more than the word " sleep," but the latter is figu- ratively used to express the former. And the Apostle Paul sets this matter completely at rest in his remarks touching * Steffe's Letters on Scripture Proofs of a Separate Intermediate State of Existence after Death, pp. 37, 38. f Essay on the Immateriality of the Soul, in reply to Dr. Priestley, pp. 40, 41, &c. J John xi. 104 SLEEP. DEATH. the resurrection; in which there is no evidence to coun- tenance an immediate entrance upon futurity at the mo- ment of death ; in which there is no hint given of an in- termediate state ; but, in which, the fact of the resurrec- tion of Jesus being admitted; then the reasoning is, — not that there was, not that there is at death, but that there will be a future life, and which is made to rest solely on the resurrection from the dead ; — if there be no resurrection, " then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are pe- rished*. 39 It will also be found that the state of death, besides be- ing represented in the Scriptures by the idea of sleep, is also said to place man in that condition in which he is at rest; that it is a "resting place/' a "house," a state of "silence/' of oblivion, of destruction and corruption f : and thus the following passages have fairly no difficulty or equivocation attached to them — "Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace f;" " going to the grave mourning^;" " going down to the pit||;" and numerous parallel pas- sages ; the whole of which, however, will be found to be simply and easily explained by the following instances, in which the same expressions are used, and in a corre- sponding sense. Bathsheba addresses David for the pur- pose of getting him to appoint her son Solomon to reign over Israel; "Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders %." And in the following chapter the death of David is recorded in cor- responding terms : " So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David**/' Again, in Job: "As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and * l Cor. xv. 18. f See Bishop Law's Theory, p. 388, &c. I Gen. xv. 15. § Gen. xxxvii. 35. || Isaiah xxxviii. 18. 1J 1 Kings i. 21. ** 1 Kings ii. 10. THE RESURRECTION. TD5 drieth up : so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the hea- vens be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep* ':" Having now glanced at the passages which have been advanced in support of Immaterialism ; and having examined the "many expressions that imply an inter- mediate and separate state/' we are placed in a condition to estimate the grounds of Dr. Jortin's confession, — that of such a state " the Scriptures have not said so much as one could wish;" though, in truth, the Doctor ought to have acknowledged that the Scriptures say not anything of such a state, that the futurity which is therein pro- mised is not one which we commence upon immediately at the dissolution of the body, and by virtue of a never- dying principle within us ; but that, "when all that are in their graves" (not in an intermediate state,) "shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condem- nation-)-. " * Job xiv. 11, 12. t John v. 28, &c. 106 CHAPTER VI. THE RESURRECTION. " If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins : then they also WHICH ARE FALLEN ASLEEP IN CHRIST ARE PERISHED." 1 Cor. XV. 17, 18. Admit the force of the Apostle's argument, and the doctrine of the materiality of man follows as an inevitable consequence : for, as has been briefly and clearly stated, ce death and resurrection are terms opposed to each other a real resurrection must be preceded by an actual death that which does not die, cannot be raised from the dead the resurrection made known in the Scriptures is a resur- rection from the dead*." This view of future existence will be seen directly to emanate from the declarations of Jesus, as well as from the teaching of his Apostles ; it having been announced as " the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life ; and / will raise him up at the last dayf." And he who from right principles could give entertainment to others, is told to "call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recompense thee — thou shalt be recom- pensed at the resurrection of the just %." Thus, "the will of him" that sent the Messiah was to make known to the * See " TJie Resurrection from the Bead an Essential Doctrine of the Gospel." By R. Wright.— P. 6. 1820. f John vi. 40. J Luke xiv. 13, 14. THE RESURRECTION. 107 world " everlasting life;" a life, from the very terms of the communication, not derivable from a self-existent, im- material principle; but from the " resurrection from the dead," when all that are in their graves shall come forth to the resurrection of life, or to that of condemnation. It was for proclaiming this doctrine, and that too itt de- fiance of both Jewish and Heathen authorities, and even of martyrdom itself, on the part of the Apostles, that the " priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them; being grieved that they taught the peo- ple, and preached through Jesus" (not the immortality of the soul,) " the resurrection from the dead*." The hope of a future state of existence, built upon this foundation, rests not on the belief of an immortal spirit, but solely, and to the absolute exclusion of all other doc- trines, upon the divinely authorized declarations of the Messiah, which were illustrated and confirmed by the fact that God had raised the man Jesus from the dead ; for "if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise notf ." So that from the reason- ing of Paul it is clear to demonstration, that if future existence depends upon our being animated by an im- material spirit, the Apostle was not favoured with the knowledge of such a passport to immortality, and he was therefore deprived of a most easy and infallible mode of silencing all gainsayers; — for of what avail to his argu- ment could be the resurrection of Jesus, provided the doctrine of Immaterialism were true ? as, in that case, * Acts iv. 1, 2. t 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14, 15. 108 THE RESURRECTION. whether the Messiah was raised from the dead, or whether he was not, immortality was alike ensured to every man, and that too, upon the showing of the Immaterialist, cy- an inherent immortality. But the Apostle Paul, as if possessed of a foreknowledge of the perversions which the doctrine of a future state was destined to undergo, has put upon record such views in relation thereto as ought to ex- plode every fallacious theory. Thus, the Thessalonians are told, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, as others which have no hope : for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him; wherefore comfort one another with these words *." Upon the supposition of all being animated by an immortal principle, how or why should the Apostle, when expressly treating of a future state, and the hopes consequent upon its belief, have omitted all reference thereto ? And, upon the same hypothesis, why should the Thessalonians "sorrow"? — why should they have "no hope"? for, whether Jesus had "risen again" or not, that fact could neither retard nor accelerate the future life of immortal souls. But in addition, the Apostle concludes a portion of his argument to the Corinthians, with a remark which should put this question beyond all con- troversy; for, "if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished!!! If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable f." Admit this argument, and the Immaterialist who is a believer in Revelation ought in fairness either to renounce his system, or renounce Paul; for the Apostle unequivo- cally asserts (and indeed his argument can have no weight, * 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14, 18. f 1 Cor. xv. 17, 18, 19. THE RESURRECTION. 109 except upon its admission,) the complete mortality of the entire man, who, when he has "fallen asleep/' cannot have hopes of again existing, but by means of a resur- rection from the dead; the evidence for which was made to rest, not upon an inherent immortality, but upon the fact that the man Jesus had been raised from the dead: for, "if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen/' And in the emphatic language of an- other Apostle — "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inhe- ritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you # ." The form and manner of the resurrection has long: been a subject of considerable disputation; and some of the defenders of Immaterialism have even laboured to make their system accord with the Scriptures, by asserting that the same identical flesh and blood from which the soul took its departure at death, will be again animated by the same soul, and thereby enjoy immortality f; although Paul has announced, that we "shall be changed; " "that corruption cannot inherit incorruption ;" and that we shall be "raised incorruptible." On the other hand, the enemies of Re- velation have not failed to avail themselves of this theory, and have generally thus stated the difficulties with which it is attended: "The same piece of matter may happen to be a part of two or more bodies ; as a fish feeding on a * 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. f As an example of the mode of reasoning in support of this theory, take the following passage from Addison : " He triumphs in his agonies, whilst the soul springs forward to the great object which she has always had in view, and leaves the body with an expectation of being reunited to her in a glorious and joyful resurrection." 110 LOCKE. man, and another man afterwards feeding on the fish, — part of the body of the first man becomes first in- corporated with the fish, and afterwards in the fish with the last man. Instances have been known of one man feeding upon another; and where the substance of one man is thus converted into the substance of another, such cannot rise with his whole body; — and to which shall the part in common belong ? " Whatever force these objections may have, they are only applicable to those who, in common with the Bishop of Worcester in his controversy with Locke, contend for the resurrection of the same body, and will be found to fall perfectly harmless, when applied to the Scriptural doctrine of a future life; "for" (says Locke) "in the New Testament, I find, our Saviour and the Apostles preach the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection from the dead; but I do not remember any place where the resurrection of the same body is so much as mentioned; nay, which is very re- markable in the case, I do not remember in any place of the New Testament, where the general resurrection at the last day is spoken of, any such expression as the resurrec- tion of the body, much less of the same body." And so sensible was Mr. Locke of the importance of the closest attention to Scriptural phraseology in relation to this doctrine, that he records his thanks to his adversary for having, by his opposition, caused him to give to it in- creased attention: "I must not part with this article of the resurrection, without returning my thanks to Your Lordship for making me take notice of a fault in my Essay. When I wrote that book, I took it for granted, as I doubt not but many others have done, that the Scriptures have mentioned in express terms the resurrection of the body; but I now find no such express words in the Scripture as that the body shall rise or be raised, or the resurrection CONSCIOUS IDENTITY. 1 J 1 of the body, and I shall in the next edition change these words of my book, e the dead bodies of men shall rise,' into those of the Scripture — c the dead shall rise* *." To this accurate and able statement may be appended the well- ascertained facts, that the same flesh and blood — the same particles of matter — cannot, agreeably to the known laws of nature, be raised in the same person, nor are they essential to constitute the same man ; conscious identity being the test by means of which the unity, or sameness of any given individual can be preserved; and that, too, even in the present life, — for the human body is continually changing; a man has not entirely the same body today as he had yesterday; and it is computed, that in a compara- tively short period, the whole human body undergoes such a change, as that not a particle of the same body remains. Such being the facts touching the living person, this view of the case will be further aided by a reference to the rapid decomposition of the dead subject, and which Shakespeare thus briefly refers to : f( Alexander died, Alex- ander was buried, Alexander returned to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer barrel ? " " Imperious Csesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." A future life is therefore not a re-animation of the same particles of matter, but a consciousness of prior existence; and it is submitted, that in such consciousness will con- sist the resurrection of mankind: and as the term "resur- rection" may be deemed expressive of " re-living " and thereby have a tendency to sanction the idea of the re- animation of the same particles of matter, it would be well that generally it should be substituted by " future life," such change being fully authorized. * Locke's Works, 8vo, 1824, pp. 348, 349, 367. ]12 MR. THOMAS PAINE. The form with which we shall rise from the dead would seem of old, as well as in modern times, to have been urged as an objection to a future life; and in the instance of cer- tain sceptics in the Corinthian church, Paul thus states and meets this supposed difficulty: "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up ? and with what body do they come ? Thou fool ! that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die ; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain; .... but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body*/ 5 From this familiar illustration of the Apostle, much misconception has arisen; chiefly, however, from a mis- taken idea, that it was designed as a complete exposition of the doctrine of a future life; when, in fact, it is not for the purpose of proving the resurrection at all, but to answer an inquiry, " with what body we should come;" — the view involved in which inquiry Paul meets, by stating that God giveth to all parts of creation, whether animate or inanimate, "whatsoever body it hath pleased him; " and, to all, those bodies which are best suited to the purposes for which he had designed them, to the circumstances in which he placed them, and to the relation which they bear towards the rest of creation. Still one class of modern objectors, from amongst whom may be selected Mr. Paine, thus condemn the reasoning of the Apostle : " Sometimes Paul affects to be a naturalist, and to prove his system of re- surrection from the principles of vegetation ; but the metaphor, in this point of view, is no simile, — it is suc- cession, not resurrection: — the progress of an animal from one state of being to another, as from a worm to a butter- fly, applies to the case; but this of a grain does not, and * 1 Cor. xv. 35 to 38. PAINE. PRIESTLEY. 113 shows Paul to have been what he says of others — a fool*." A close attention, however, to the argument of Paul would have shown Mr. Paine, that it was not to "prove his system of resurrection" that he illustrated his idea by seed sown in the ground; that branch of his argument having been brought to a conclusion in the preceding verses by a refer- ence to the important fact, a fact which the Corinthians admitted, that the Messiah had been raised from the dead : — of the several witnesses in attestation of this fact, the first named was Cephas, then the twelve, then five hun- dred brethren at once; and last of all, the humble, and de- voted, and eloquent Apostle, he being one born of due time ; and all, upon the establishment of whose testimony, and not upon the illustration of the seed sown in the ground, Paul "proves his system;" and without mani- festing a particle of that quality which the author of the Age of Reason might himself have luxuriated in, — of "affecting to be a naturalist;" and that too, without going into details as to hoiv, and in what manner, the de- signs of God upon such a subject should be carried into effect; though in fact, had Paul used the simile of the seed with the object stated, his reasoning would not have merited the coarse dogmatism which, at the hands of Mr. Paine, it has received : Dr. Priestley, indeed, had long before the appearance of Mr. Paine's critique re- marked, that " the comparison is not to be supposed to apply throughout, as if the Apostle intended to say, that by a law of nature, similar to that of the re-production of seeds from seeds, a dead man should produce a living one, for the cases are remarkably different, there being an apparent living principle or germ, the expansion of which makes the future plant ; so that if the whole seed should ever become putrid, no other plant or seed could * Age of Reason, Part II. p. 85. I 114 THOMAS PAINE. be produced from it; but as antecedent to experience, we could not have known this, but should rather have imagined that a seed buried in the ground would be absolutely lost; so, notwithstanding appearances to the contrary, with respect to man, though he be buried, the time may come when he will appear again*." But had Paul's knowledge of natural history equalled that of even the author of the Age of Reason, and had he attempted to prove "his system of resurrection," by "the progress of an animal from one state of being to another, as from a worm to a butterfly," then indeed his knowledge and his reasoning might well have been im- peached; for in the instance of seed sown in the earth, there is, to ordinary observation, if not a real, an ap- parent extinction of life, and the production from the grain thus sown in the earth presents a different aspect to that of the seed from which it has sprung; hence Paul's case in replying to the disingenuous quibble " with what bodies do they come," is ably and philosophically sus- tained, God giving to the new production that "body which hath pleased him," and to every seed, in common with all the works of the Almighty mind, "its dwn (its suitable) body." In Mr. Paine's amended case, however, can it be held that there is either a real or an apparent extinction ; the worm, in becoming a butterfly, merely undergoing a change of form ? But had the Apostle in- deed argued the doctrine of a future life, (as Mr. Paine intimates he ought to have done,) and had he been so im- becile in his reasoning as to apply to his case the illus- tration of the butterfly, which if it proved anything would tend to establish the negative of his position, then in truth he might have merited the imputation of folly: and further, had he gone beyond this, and thus addressing the • Priestley's Notes on the Bible, vol. iv. p. 160. THOMAS PA[NE. 115 sceptical Corinthians, have stated, How say some among you that there will be no resurrection of the dead ? " I trouble not myself about the mode of future existence : I content myself with believing it even to positive con- viction : — It appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter, than that I should have had existence*." Without stopping to inquire what Mr. Paine might have said of Paul, had the Apostle thus met the objections to the resurrection, it would not be difficult to conceive what ought to have been the estimate of such a mode of satis- fying doubting minds with argument or with authority; neither would the case be improved, if upon a renewed application to their great leader the Corinthians were thus replied to : I am not well able to offer you arguments and evidence that you shall live again, because the fact is con- trary to the evidence of our senses, and one which the Di- vine commands alone can satisfactorily establish amongst mankind, — although the man Jesus was raised from the dead, amidst other purposes, for that of attesting the resur- rection of all mankind, and although I, with a host of others, have been an eye-witness of his resurrection, yet all this availeth nothing, because " a very numerous part of the animal creation preach to you far better than I (Paul) the belief of a life hereafter ; their little life resembles an earth and a heaven, a present and a future state, and comprises immortality in miniature \. iy But to return to the argument : The simile used by Paul, it has been seen, was not to prove the resurrection, but simply to meet the question, as to our form in a future state ; and in support of the position, that " God giveth * See Mr. Paine's Confession of Faith, Age of Reason, Part I. p. 52. f Paine's Age of Reason, Part II. p. 84. i2 11G .LOCKE. a body as it hath pleased him" as instanced in every exercise of the Almighty power ; that power, the mag- nitude and infinity of which was equally developed in the minute as in the vast in creation; and that in all there was an evidence of the fitness of every form to the circumstances, and for the purposes for which it was created, as demonstrated in the production of the fruits of the earth — -in the formation of beasts — of birds — of fishes — of men — of bodies terrestrial and celestial — in the glory of the sun — of the moon — of the stars, —and, u as one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body; for there is an animal* body, and there is a spiri- tual body." (vv. 41 — 43.) "Paul," says Locke, "means to show, "that as we now have animal bodies, which, unless supported by a constant supply of food and air, will fail and perish, and at last, do what we can, will dissolve, and come to an end, so that at the resurrection we shall have * The received text reads, "it is sown a natural body," which tends to mislead the reader. The adoption of the above rendering is sup- ported by numerous authorities. See Macknight, Belsham, and Locke ; the latter of whom states, that the term "translated in the Bible a natural body, should be translated an animal body." And, in con- formity with this view of the present and preceding passages, the late Mr. Alexander has thus ably paraphrased these verses : — " Shall we imagine that the Being who annually renews the face of Nature, and gives fresh life to the world of plants and vegetables, is either unwill- ing to exert himself in behalf of reasonable beings, or can find no re- sources in his power and wisdom, for restoring men to life, and furnish- ing them with such bodies as are adapted to a more perfect and durable state of existence ? This will appear still more incredible if we consider the immense variety which reigns throughout the works of Nature, and in what manner the Creator of all things has furnished the almost endless tribes of animals which inhabit this globe with a form and temperament peculiar to themselves, and at the same time I. CORINTHIANS 15TH. 117 bodies which shall have an essential, natural, and insepa- rable life in them;" that life which is promised by Jesus to those " which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead; for neither can they die any more ; for they are equal to the angels (mes- sengers), and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection *." Thus the argument pursued by Paul to convince those in the Corinthian church who were sceptical as to a future state, is of great importance; seeing, that whilst he does not even glance at the theories of the Immaterialists, yet, had his argument been expressly shaped for the purpose of overthrowing their doctrines, it could not have been more successful; and while the certainty of futurity is maintained, some of the particulars characteristic thereof are also treated upon, by which means the Apostle thus presents a connected view of the entire subject ; for u now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept;" the first fruits in the Mosaic lawf , being the first ripe corn gathered before the rest, exquisitely accommodated to their condition and ways of living. Man is sown and buried in the ground, but is raised incorruptible, without the least tendency to a decay ; (he) is consigned to the ground in a state of dishonour, when the breath being departed, the dust returns to dust, and mingles with its native earth; but that which is raised appears with peculiar marks of honour and dignity; it (he) is sown in weakness, the fine machine being totally disordered, its action ceased, and the organs of sense no longer able to perform any part of their wonted service; but it (he) is raised with accessions of power and strength, and with an improved capacity of performing all the actions of a nobler life. An animal body is sown in the ground, and endued with the breath of life, but a life imperfect and momentary, subject to disease, sorrow, and travail ; but a spiritual body is raised, of a more refined and perfect constitution, and which is superior to all the pains and evils of mortality." — Paraphrase upon 15th Corinthians. By John Alexander, 1766, p. 58. * Luke xx. 35, 36. f Lev. xxiii. 10. 118 SECOND COMING OF JESUS. such being the earnest and pledge of the future harvest; a figure, as applied to a future state of existence, illustra- tive of the situation occupied by Jesus relatively towards others. " But every man in his own order : Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. Then will the end be, when God the Father delivereth up the kingdom to him; when he shall have put down all rule, all authority and power ; for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also him- self be subject unto him that put all things under him # , that God may be all in all." See verses 23 to 28. The order of the resurrection, as stated by Paul, has given rise to much diversity of opinion ; some main- taining that it is a relation of the several classes of man- kind, which are all to rise at the general resurrection; others that it is a statement of — firstly, the resurrection of * In the adoption of the above translation, there is a wide departure from the received text : the reasons for so doing are, that, whilst the common translation has given rise to the most opposing theories, it fails to convey to the mind any clear and connected view of the Apostle's argument: this will he more clearly seen by comparing the 24th and 28th verses. In the former, "he" that is to put down all rule, au- thority, and power" is Jesus. In the latter, "he" that is to "put all things under him" is God. In the 24th verse, when the "end" cometh, Jesus is to deliver up the kingdom to God. Now " the kingdom " may be deemed to be the kingdom or church of God — not the kingdom or church of Jesus; consequently Jesus could not "deliver" that up which was not his to deliver. To make the 25th verse accord with the common translation of the 24th, a new feature is appropriated to the Messiah's office ; that of making him reign " until he hath put all enemies under his feet," when the declaration of the Supreme Being is, " Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy foot- stool." See Psalm ex; Matthew xxii. 43; Acts ii. 34. Throughout the Scriptures, the punishment of the enemies of truth proceeds di- rectly from the Deity alone, whose benevolence is in an equal degree shown, whether in punishing or in rewarding and exalting; and in re- SECOND COMING OF JESUS. 119 Jesus ; secondly, the resurrection of the virtuous ; thirdly, that of the wicked, who, after having passed through a necessary state of discipline, shall be made virtuous and happy: and others esteem the verses, from the 23rd to the 29th inclusive, to be descriptive of three distinct and distant periods ; firstly, the resurrection of Jesus ; second- ly, that of his devoted servants in every age, who, be- cause of their obedience to the principles of the Gospel, would be raised prior to the general resurrection, and be associated with the Messiah when he shall, at Jerusa- lem, occupy the throne of David, and his twelve Apostles shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel ; fulfilling the de- claration in the Revelations, as being of those that are "Blessed and holy and that hath part in the first resur- rection, for on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ* ;" a period of time considered to be referred to by Paul in the Thes- salonians, when the "Lord himself shall descend, and the dead in Christ shall rise first \" as a reward to such lation to whom, when he hath put all enemies under his feet, he will then, when that is effected, deliver "the kingdom" to the government of his son on earth, subsequently to and arising out of the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and the personal (not spiritual) reign of the Messiah at his second coming at Jerusalem, when " God shall be all in all," by means of the universal spread of the principles of the Gospel. The authority in support of the adopted translation is that of Gilbert Wakefield, who, instead of " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," renders the passage " Then will the end be when God the Father delivereth up the kingdom to him" (Jesus); and this translation is founded upon the Ethiopic ver- sion, which appears to clear up the difficulties of most commentators ; difficulties which, by the way, Mr. BelshamJ has said that "nothing perhaps but the great event can fully explain." * Rev. xx. 6. t 1 Thess. iv. 16. { Belsham's Epistles of Paul, vol. ii. p. 338. 120 REIGN OF JESUS AT JERUSALEM. persons on the one hand, and on the other for the pur- pose of placing them in situations to assist in the esta- blishment of that promised state of things, in which God shall be "all in all;" a state in which the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters do the channels of the deep, — thus fulfilling the promise to Abraham, that in him and in his seed should all nations of the earth be blessed. These several modes of explaining a passage in the writings of the Apostle of acknowledged difficulty, are submitted with the remark, that be the correct one which it may, the argument against the Immaterialists will receive full and equal support, seeing that in each it is the "resurrection of the man from the dead," not the possession of an immortal spirit, which is made the sole ground of hope for a future state of existence ; and in per- fect conformity with this view, are the statements of the Apostle, in which it is palpable, that an immaterial, im- mortal principle is not only not recognised by him, but that the admission of its existence would entirely destroy his argument. " Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed ; for the dead (not the immortal souls) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed ; for this corruptible must put on in- corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "death is swallowed up in victory." Need it be here pointed out that that which is immaterial cannot be corruptible, that that which is immortal can neither be called upon "to put on" immortality, nor can it become mortal; that the future existence of a being inherently immortal, could neither be u a mystery," nor "a victory," neither could it excite un- expected exultation ; and the grand climax of the Apostle, " O death ! where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy RESURRECTION. 121 victory }" would have been a satire upon the understand- ing of those to whom he wrote, and could not have failed to have furnished his enemies with a triumphant weapon against himself : for in the language of Archdeacon Black- burn, "of what consequence is it, if they have immortal life by nature, whether they have it by promise or not ? what does it signify, whether they have hopes of a resurrection or not, if they are sure of a future life by provision, and allotment without a resurrection*?" An assertion has been made by writers, whose senti- ments in other particulars are much opposed to each other; namely, that a future state of existence is not a doctrine peculiar to the Gospel of Jesus. In support of this po- sition, Mr. Sturch, in a chapter on this subject, asserts, that " as a future state was certainly known to both the Jewish and Heathen world, what then becomes of what has been termed the peculiar doctrine of the Gospel f?" To which inquiry it may be replied, that the future state of the Heathen world was one, the views of which varied not only in almost every heathen nation, but also in the tenets of almost every eminent individual in each nation ; and that the whole was built upon the presumed exist- ence of an immaterial, immortal principle in man; but the Scriptural doctrine of a future life, by means of a re- surrection from the dead, and aided by the fact of the re- surrection of the man Jesus, is a doctrine "peculiarly" of the Gospel — a doctrine which the wise and the great among the heathens did not even comprehend ; conceiving " Jesus and the resurrection" to be strange gods; "and when they (the Athenian Philosophers) heard of the resur- rection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will * Blackburn's Works, vol. iii. p. 195. f Apeleutherus, p. 214. 122 RESURRECTION. hear you again of this matter*." A still more recent writer than the one just quoted, represents as one and the same system, the doctrine of an immortal soul, and that of the resurrection from the dead ; for u the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments were fully recognised in all the religions of the ancient world, except the Jewish, and they are equally so in those of more modern timesf i" whilst an opposite theory to that of Mr. Lawrence, in regard to the Jews, has been main- tained by some Jewish as well as Christian writers : among the former, Ben Levi thinks " it necessary to take notice of the falsity of what Christians in general maintain ; viz. that the Jews were unacquainted with the doctrine of the Resurrection J i" This writer, however, commits that doc- trine in two ways : first, by falling in with the heathen hy- pothesis of an immortal soul ; and secondly, by contending that the resurrection will be that of the same body. It would, however, seem to be the fact, that in the lat- ter period of the Jewish history, some sects among that people had imbibed, doubtless from their intercourse with the heathen nations, the notion of an immortal principle in man; but it may be most safely asserted, that, as a nation, they had not that which, upon such a subject, can be the only ground for believing that we shall live again, — namely, the authority of Revelation. The rewards promised to the Jews by command of theDeity, and the punishments threat- ened, were of a temporal character, nor did the knowledge of a future life form any part of the Mosaic oeconomy; still, considering that Judaism and the Gospel of Jesus are really but parts of one system, it is highly probable that the Pro- phets and other eminently enlightened and virtuous men * Acts xxxii. \ Lawrence's Lectures, p. 8. \ Levi's Dissertation on the Prophecies, p. 171. RESURRECTION.— LAWRENCE. 123 of the Jewish nation were led to infer, from what they did know of the dispensations of God, that the present would not be the only state of our existence; and such an idea was calculated to receive support from the facts of Enoch and Elijah not having seen death, as well as from many exalted passages in the prophetic writings descriptive of the cha- racter and attributes of the Divine Being. Still this must have been but conjecture on their parts, and can, in re- lation to their sentiments, be but conjecture on ours ; but this we do know, that "Jesus the anointed hath brought life and immortality to light, through the Gospel*." Such life and such immortality is truly a doctrine peculiar to the Gospel — a doctrine which, without an express reve- lation, man never could have had adequate causes in which to place confident hopes ; and it may safely be asserted, that the doctrine of the resurrection was not communi- cated to mankind before the proclamation of that Gospel, of which it forms a leading and a vital part, and as such is one of "the great truths of religion, and one of the fun- damental principles of morals," and exactly possesses the recommendation which a writer before quoted deems es- sential to the reception of such a truth ; " for Revelation alone is capable of dissipating the uncertainties which per- plex those who inquire into the sources of these important principles f/' Revelation has dissipated these uncertain- ties, though it would seem to but little purpose in the in- stance of one (Mr. Lawrence) who can be so utterly igno- rant of what it has taught, as to confound the Scriptural doctrine of the resurrection of the dead with the " sub- lime doctrine of all ages" (i. e. the immortality of the soul), and then jeer at Revelation — not for what it does teach, but what, from his own ignorance of the subject, * 2 Tim. i. 10. f Lawrence's Lectures, p. 12. 124 BISHOP LAW. he deems fit to attribute thereto. It is a doctrine which secures the object of future existence, without being en- cumbered with the palpable absurdities and philosophi- cal puzzles of immaterialism ; — it comports with the most enlightened reason, and the deepest philosophical and physiological research; and connected as it is with the nature, and fitted to secure the object, of revealed re- ligion, it is, when justly appreciated, capable of supply- ing the most powerful motives, for perfecting the cha- racter, and for calling forth the energies and insuring the happiness of man, both in the present and in a future state of existence. With this estimate of the Scriptural doctrine of a fu- ture state, the hypothesis of an immaterial and immortal soul cannot but be reprobated ; the belief of which, being opposed to Divine authority, and tending to the destruc- tion of a most valuable part of Revelation, has supplied the unbeliever with some of his most potent arguments against that system; but to such supporters of revelation, as may from old prejudices still adhere to the heathen hy- pothesis, the well-expressed advice of Bishop Law may be strongly recommended : " If you have hurt your own cause, and corrupted Christianity by an impure mixture of human wisdom, falsely so called, or by the dregs of heathen philosophy ; if you have disguised the face of it, or rather substituted something else in its room, and thereby put arms into the hands of infidels, which they have used but too successfully against us; — I ask whether it is not high time to examine our Bibles, and try to ex- hibit the true Christian plan as it is there delivered, and consider whether we may not surely rest upon that solid rock of a resurrection, without any of those visionary prospects which imagination is ever ready to furnish us BISHOP LAW. 125 with : whether by this means we might not be able to move the seat of war into the enemy's quarters, till at length he sees the necessity for some superior guide, and sets himself in good earnest to seek after that light which came down from above, and ivhich alone can lead him to the light of everlasting life*}" * Postscript to Theory of Religion, p. 427, &c. J 26 FASTS, FESTIVALS, SABBATHS. CHAPTER I. HEATHEN AND JEWISH FESTIVALS. " I pour out a flood of tears to think what human ceremonies have cost all mankind, and particularly what a price my native country has paid for them. "—Robert Robinson, of Cambridge. '* In the Christian Church no festival appears clearly to have been instituted, either by Jesus Christ or his Apostles." — John Robinson, of Westmoreland. The question as to the expediency of religious ceremonial observances, in relation to their effects upon society, has been debated with no ordinary zeal and ability, and as yet remains an entirely open subject, alike interesting to the theologian and the philosopher. The present remarks chiefly relate, not to their expediency, but to their history and authority, with the design of ascertaining whether any — and if any, which — are supported by Divine authority; making an obedience thereto binding in perpetuity upon all believers in that religion which, with incomparable elo- quence, was portrayed on Mars Hill as having, in contra- distinction to heathenism, for the exclusive object of its worship a God " that made the world and all things therein," and who, as " Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things*." These doctrines of the distinguished Apostle thus formed a singular contrast to the * Acts xvii. FEASTS. 127 religion of the philosophers, and admirably sustained the simplicity and the purity of that reverence, which had been declared of old to be of a mental and a spiritual cha- racter. "When ye come to appear before me, bring no more vain oblations 5 incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth *." Still we are called upon by the Christi- anity which is "part and parcel of the law of the land," to conform to institutions which in spirit but ill accord with the lamentations of the Prophet, or the subsequent authority of the Apostle. "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vainf." Our ecclesiastical hierarchy, however, in its wisdom, and in "holy convocation," together with the king's majesty, "under God" as the supreme head of the church, spiri- tually and temporally, has resolved that we shall observe "times and seasons," and has made its allotments of fasts and of festivals. Fasts are days of religious abstinence, and have, either really or nominally, been observed in most ages and na- tions. The first recorded instance is in the time of Mo- ses, who enjoined a solemn day of expiation : this fast was instituted by Divine authority. The Jews had also other times of fasting, and of humiliation, such as "the fasts of the congregation;" all of which they observed with great strictness. Between fasting and abstinence the church of Rome drew a distinction, but the church of England has copied the fasts without this distinction ; indeed there is a statute which declares, that whoever, in preaching or writing, affirms it to be necessary on fast- * Isaiah i. f Galatians iv. 128 FEASTS. days to abstain from flesh, for the purpose of saving the soul of man, is to be punished as a spreader of false news. Yet one of the homilies in the church Prayer Book, which homily was originally passed at the council of Chalcedon, declares — that withholding meat, drink, and all natural food from the body, during fasts, is " proper for Christian duty." How this injunction of the 630 holy fathers, of which the council was composed, was and is observed, might not unprofitably be adverted to. Feasts, among the heathen nations, were very nume- rous, and instituted on various occasions ; some of which were in honour of the gods, when they had conferred any signal favour ; and others in memory of particular indivi- duals : from these observances some of the feasts in the "reformed Christian calendar" are borrowed, even to very trifling points of detail, and they are treated by church writers as "holy days >" thus, in illustration, Christmas- day, Easter-day, and all Sundays are festivals, a festival being a church solemnity or rejoicing, in honour of God or of a saint ! In Nelson's Companion to the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, we learn that " festivals, or holy days, are set apart by the church" (not by Divine autho- rity) either for the remembrance of some special mercies of God, such as the Birth and Resurrection of Christ, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, &c; or in memory of the great heroes of the Christian religion, the blessed Apostles, and other saints. That they are of ecclesiasti- cal institution, agreeable to Scripture, in the general design of them, for the promoting of piety, and conso- nant to the practice of the primitive church." The primi- tive, it is presumed, can in this case only mean the papal church. By the 5th and 6th Edward VI., cap. 3, it appears, that the compilers of our Liturgy conceived that all festi- HOLY DAYS. 129 vals were " to call men to remembrance of their duty ; and it hath been" (they say) " wholesomely provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed, wherein Christians should cease from all kinds of labour, and should apply themselves only and wholly to the afore- said holy works, properly pertaining unto true religion : the which times appointed for the same are called holy days, for godly and holy works wherewith only God is to be honoured." The days thus to be kept were Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, the Purifi- cation, the Epiphany, the Holy Innocents, the Nativities of all the Apostles and "great church heroes," &c. These days, and " none others," were directed to be kept holy. This statute was afterwards repealed by Mary — con- tinued void throughout the long reign of Elizabeth, but was revived by James. Yet holy as these days (and "none others'') were enjoined to be kept, being exclusively for "godly and holy ivorks, wherewith God only was to be honoured/' we find that the appointed leaders to the paths of righteousness, the shepherds of the holy flocks, even in those times, were, upon Sundays and other holy days, cha- racterized by " posting over their services as fast as they could gallope ; for eyther they had two places to serve, or else there were some games to be playde in the afternoon ; as lying for the whetstone, heathenish dancing for the ring, a beare or a bull to be baited, or else a jackanapes to ride on horseback, or an interlude to be playde in the church*." The authority for the institution of these fasts and festivals, or holy days, is stated to be derived, not from that which can alone be of any real authority to the be- liever, namely their Divine appointment, but from the * See Introduction to Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. ISO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. twentieth of the thirty- nine articles, which were agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops, in 1 562, " for the avoiding of diversity of opinion, and for the establishment of consent touching true religion." Passing by, in relation to these articles, the additions as well as curtailments which they underwent, and the heated controversies and recriminations, and mutual charges of forgery, which their arrangement engendered, it may be well merely to note the act of 1571 ; in which the thirty-nine articles are referred to as the articles of religion, in " an imprinted book" — " for avoiding diversities of opinion." A dispute has arisen upon these articles, as to where the "imprinted book" thus described, and upon which the act of parliament as- sumes to be framed, is. The fact being, that the book so quoted is held not to be in existence ; whilst in the manu- scripts of the thirty-nine articles w 7 hich have reached us, both in English and Latin, there are numberless various readings, some of which materially affect the sense of the text ; and one of the most important of these various read- ings is to be found in the twentieth article, the article which declares the power of the church to " decree rites or cere- monies," and gives it authority in controversies of faith. It is an unquestionable fact, says Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, "that the ceremonies and holy days of all the good people of the church of England were, among 117 priests, carried by a majority of one vote, and that given by proxy. Whether the absent member, who gave the casting vote, were talk- ing, or journeying, or hunting, or sleeping, is immaterial; he was the god almighty of this article of English religion, and his power decreed rites and ceremonies." But, ab- surd as the passing of the decree by the casting vote of an absent person may be, yet it must be esteemed to have been passed, and, so far, may be binding upon those who can sanction such authority ; and the fact appears to be, BISHOP LAUD. 131 that a part of the debated article was not inserted at all in that copy of the articles which, in 16J1, received the sanc- tion of the legislature. Bishop Laud, on his trial, was accused of having fabricated it ; which, however, he de- nied ; still it did not form a part of the Articles as esta- blished by the 13th of Elizabeth, or as agreed to by the convocation of 1562 or 1571 *. And yet, with all this un- certainty as to the legitimacy of the article, and the entire absence of authority from the New Testament for any rite or ceremony whatever, the church of England proceeded to issue its decrees in support of the ceremonies of its heathen and catholic predecessors ; and even retained the lessons, as directed by the Catholic church, to be read on "holy days" for " godly discipline/' The Catholic arrangement too has been preserved, of making very numerous selections, not exclusively from the Old or New Testament, but from "Wisdom/* " Moses," and other apocryphal books. Yet so essential is a conformity to these ceremonies, thus derived, esteemed to be by the highest church authorities, that we are advertised in the Book of Common Prayer, that " the transgression of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God/' they being for "godly discipline, and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God, by some notable and special signification." We are also referred to the Jewish law, though it was declared by the highest authority that these institutions should only continue until they had fulfilled their destined object ; that the law, in- deed, came by Moses, but that grace and freedom came by Jesus Christ, the breaker down of the ceremonial wall, the proclaimer of the "perfect law of liberty" and that * See a pamphlet printed in 1710, called "Priestcraft in Perfec- tion ; or, a Detection of inserting and continuing this Clause in the Twen- tieth Article of the Articles of the Church of England." k2 132 JEWISH CEREMONIES. the chosen of God were no longer under bondage being relieved from that yoke of ceremonial observances, which the Jews in the time of Jesus, in common with their fa- thers, had been hardly able to bear. Let us glance at the Jewish ceremonies, their authority and objects ; bearing in our recollection what are called the Christian ceremonies, with their authority and their objects. In the first place there was no Jewish fast, or feast, ever appointed in commemoration of the birth or death of any individual : eminent as particular men had been, as well in teaching as in delivering their nation from bondage, they had no days appointed for their remem- brance ; nor did they, with all their tendency towards su- perstitious observances, honour with the title of saints — Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob : to act on the principles, and to imitate the example of these great though uncanonized patriarchs being esteemed, in those days, at least as effec- tive "in godly discipline' ' as the strictest observance of all the days in the calendar can be regarded in the present. Besides which, the Jewish institutions were of a practically moral character — called for, even, by their former super- stitions, by the want of knowledge incident to the age in which they lived, and the circumstances in which they were so peculiarly placed ; and designed apparently, by means adapted to the then comparative infancy of civili- zation, to divert the minds of the people from heathen im- purities and superstitious observances, by connecting the gratification of their senses with the inculcation of moral truths, of a constant remembrance of their past situation, of the God who had delivered them from slavery, and who continued to afford them favour and protection ; and to keep in remembrance the unity of God, and the benevolence of his government, as demonstrated in all the Divine conduct towards their nation. Thus the Passover was connected JEWISH CEREMONIES. 133 with their past sojourn in Egypt, and their miraculous de- liverance therefrom. The Feast of Pentecost, was instituted to oblige the Israelites to repair to the temple of the Lord, and acknowledge his dominion over them ; and also to render thanks to God, for his having given the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Feast of Tabernacles, at which the whole of the nation attended in the temple, and dwelt under tents of leaves, was to remind them that their fathers had dwelt forty years in tents, as wanderers in the wilderness. With these, in common with other minor ceremonies, the miraculous events in the Jewish history were com- pletely interwoven ; and being so, the importance of a strict and perfect observance of them became essential ; and a reference to the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, will prove their admirable fitness to the existing condition of the particular nation upon whom these observances were enjoined, and the essentially moral and enlightened objects with which they were combined. But, although the Is- raelites did not appoint days in commemoration of their really eminent men — their u heroes," the Christians, in after times were careful to supply such deficiency : one of the reasons given for the establishment of Advent, or the forty days' fast prior to what is styled the u coming of Christ/' being — that " it was instituted in honour of the fast of Moses, as that of Lent was in honour of the fast of Christ ; and that as Moses, by a fast of forty days up- on the mount, was prepared to receive the two tables of the law from God, so it is incumbent upon Christians to prepare themselves, by a like abstinence, for the reception of the eternal Word, the true and great lawgiver coming in the flesh*." The church which "decrees rites and ceremonies" in- * See Shepherd's Elucidation of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Churches of England and Ireland, 1801. 134 THE RIVAL MISSALS. stituted a forty days' fast, in honour of an event, of which the individuals immediately concerned took no such espe- cial cognizance ; — but even if there had been such a fast among the Jews, unless it had been commanded to be con- tinued by Jesus, those who observe it would, to the extent of this ceremony, constitute themselves Jews, not Chris- tians; and then, indeed, they must really "fast-" not as by the present mode, in which even the most rigid of the saints are permitted the "free use of oil, of wine, and of all sorts of fish." The season for observing this last fast, which we are told is "incumbent upon Christians," was, like Christmas, among the holy fathers, subject to con- siderable variations ; and some hot disputes arose in con- sequence, as the Missals of Ambrose and Gregory materi- ally differed in relation to it. The Church, therefore, being resolved to decide the controversy, appealed to a miracle. The two Missals were laid upon the altar of the cathedral of Milan, the church doors shut and sealed ; in the morn- ing Gregory's Missal was found torn in pieces, and Am- brose's placed upon the altar in a position of being read : this might have appeared final against poor Gregory, — but a power behind the altar, greater than the altar itself, sagely decided that Gregory's Missal being torn and scat- tered about, it should be used all over the world, and Am- brose's only in the church of Milan ! In looking at the two codes of ceremonies in question, and without running a parallel between them — without even glancing at the divinely appointed and really moral character of the Jewish, and at the Pagan original and im- moral character of parts of the English church calendar — without observing that the one had time, place, season, and object distinctly set forth; and that the other, which may be (according to the Book of Common Prayer) "varied ac- cording to the various exigencies of times and occasions" FESTIVALS. 135 — without referring to the authority of the one, which had God for its institutor — and of the other, which rests on a claim of the " church," by act of parliament, to "decree rites and ceremonies," — it may be submitted that, separate and apart from any of these considerations, the church calendar does not possess an adequate claim upon our attention; seeing that any ceremony, be it a fast or a festival, cannot now be binding upon believers, unless dis- tinctly and positively appointed — not by Moses — but by Jesus. And, upon looking to this latter source, to him who alone can be the Gospel lawgiver, it will be seen, that his mission was to destroy those " shadows of things that were to come;" that the whole spirit and genius of his religion were opposed to ceremonial observances; and also that the great follower in his footsteps, the apostle Paul, expresses alarm for those who had evinced a taste for their former " bondage," from which they had been delivered by having " known God, or rather are known of God : how then " (says Paul) "turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements of this world?" The moral value of religious festivals may be best esti- mated by a reference to the ancient, as well as modern, authorized practices and observances appointed for such occasions. Though, if these facts did not exist, it would still be difficult to discover how, in the language of the Book of Common Prayer, the "dull mind of man could be stirred up to a remembrance of his duty to God," by an observance, for example, of the Ember days, the three Rogation days, the days of the Holy Innocents, the Nativity — with the accompanying vigils — of Jesus and his Apostles, the Purification of the Virgin, or the forty days of Lent : except indeed, in regard to the latter, virtue can be extracted from an act of parliament passed in 1549, in which we are apprised, "That though all days 136 CHARLES BUTLER. and meats are in themselves alike, yet fasting being a great help to virtue, and to the subduing of the body to the mind : therefore all persons, excepting the weak, or those that have the king's license, shall, under several penal- ties, fast; yet a distinction of meats being conducive to the advancement of the fishing trade, be it enacted that Lent, and all Saturdays, and Fridays, and Ember days, shall be fish days." Neither can much of religious truth be discovered, which should cause "the dull mind of man" to venerate the Deity, in the instructions given in con- nexion with the festival of the "holy virgin," in which she is styled "the empress of heaven," "the queen of heaven," "the lady of the universe," "the only hope of sinners," and where she is called upon "to command God her son to forgive those which he had forgotten ," but now remembered, — not for their, but for her sake. Although the church of England may not fairly be chargeable, in its festival dedicated to the Virgin, with blasphemy to the full extent of that above stated, yet the difference is one of de- gree, not of kind ; for, in regard to its festivals, in com- mon with every other part of its establishment, the ap- proach to its great prototype is so close, and the union in principle so perfect, that it is most justly complimented by Butler, the modern and liberal Roman Catholic writer, in his article on the Church of France, in the following unqua- lified manner : " Of all Protestant churches the national church of England most nearly resembles the church of Rome, It has retained much of her dogma, and much of her discipline. Down to the sub- deacon it has retained the whole of her hierarchy ; and, like her, has deans, chap- ters, prebends, archdeacons, rectors, and vicars ; a liturgy taken in a great measure from the Catholic, and com posed like it of psalms, canticles, the three creeds, litanies, epistles, gospels, prayers, and responses. Both churches THE CALENDAR. 13/ have the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist; the absolution of the sick, the burial service, the sign of the cross in baptism, the reservation of confirmation and order to bishops, the different episcopal and sacerdotal dress, the organ, a cathedral service, feasts and fasts. Without adopting all the general councils of the church of Rome^ the church of England has adopted the first three of them ; and without acknowledging the authority of the other councils, or the authority of the fathers, the English divines of the established church allow, that the early councils and early fathers are entitled to a high degree of respect *." Such approbation from a Catholic writer must be rather humiliating to that class of churchmen who shudder at the very name of popery. It is, however, well merited ; and both churches have proved themselves not indolent imitators of their heathen instructors ; the contents of the calendar supplying as it does ample evidence of its partially heathen original. The calendar, or /calendar, from calendarium, was invented by Numa, for making known to his subjects all matters relative to their feasts or ceremonies. The " Christian Calendar 3 ' of the Church of England consists of the following days; which Nelson, in his Companion to the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, asserts are designed to " improve the holy seasons to the advantage of our souls/' They are divided into two classes. First, Of those which are moveable, and there- fore dependent upon Easter, there are eight. Secondly, Of immoveable feasts there are eighty-one. Besides these, there are of vigils, fasts, and days of abstinence seventy- one; together with all the Fridays in the year, and "four certain solemn days for particular services;" two of which are appropriated to that pious explosion, the gunpowder plot, and to the memory of our saint Charles I., whose * The Philological and Biographical Works of Charles Butler, vol. 5. 138 CHRISTMAS DAY. death is somewhat oddly termed a "martyrdom;" — making altogether 216 days; being more than half the year set apart by the law of the land, and by the solemn injunctions of the Book of Common Prayer, for religious observance, — to disregard which we are apprised " is no small offence before God." As it might be tedious, and perhaps unprofitable, to trace up in detail this mass of ceremonial observances, it may be well to confine ourselves to a few of the more pro- minent days and seasons. The "Feast of the Nativity," or Christmas Day, is now held in Europe on the 25th December, in honour of the birth of Jesus ; upon which day we are instructed, by the highest church authorities, to have in our minds "great admiration of God," — "great thankfulness to the blessed Jesus for consenting to be born on this day." yet we do not find that " Christ's nativity" was a matter ever referred to by Jesus himself*; we may safely infer, indeed, that it was an event never celebrated during his life, or after his resurrection, by his personal friends, by his apostles, or by the first believers : — the second century is deemed to have given birth to this "great festival" a period in church history in which little of the Gospel re- mained, it having been corrupted by and amalgamated with heathenism. The day of the birth of the Messiah, * The two first chapters of Matthew, and of Luke, in which such obscene and contradictory statements are made concerning the birth of Jesus, are held to be spurious: see Pope on the Miraculous Conception; Lardner's Works, vol. 1; Dr. Williams' Free Inquiry; Priestley's Early Opinions; Evanson's Dissonance; the Improved Version of the New Testament; and the FreethinJcing Christians' Magazine for 1814. All, indeed, that we know of the commencement of the public life of Jesus, and of his age, is that the holy spirit de- scended upon him — that a voice from heaven proclaimed him to be the well-beloved son of God ; and that at this time " Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being the son of Joseph." Luke iii. 23. CHRISTMAS DAY. 139 too, has been a matter of much laborious investigation, and not altogether without cause ; for chronological accu- racy with a church which " decrees rites and ceremonies," is supposed to aid and confirm its institutions; hence the anxiety to give to the 25th day of December the honour of the "Nativity." Nelson labours to remove the difficulties which encumber this point, by asserting that et Jesus' birth- day was a great festival in the primitive" (i.e. of course the Roman Catholic) church : though we have no certain evi- dence of the exact time which was observed, the 25th De- cember, there is little doubt, is the very day, though if the day were mistaken, it will be pardonable in those ivho think they are not mistaken*." That mistakes or inconsisten- cies either do, or have existed, even in England, is un- questionable; the alteration of the style alone might pro- duce such. The Eastern and Western churches have never agreed upon " the very day" the former keeping it on the 5th January, the latter on the 25th December; though not always consistent even to that date, there being variations in the Western churches from the 20th to the 25th De- cember. There were other churches who celebrated this "very day" in April — others in May; and the Greek church now observe Christmas in February. There is a learned and laboured work, written by a clergyman of that diocese (Peterborough) which, in our own times, has been blessed with an orthodox and an immaculate bishop, the title of which is expressive of its character, and of the importance too which is attached to pre- cision relative to the birth of Jesus; it is, "A Brief but True Account of the certain Year, Month and Day of the Birth of Jesus Christ." And this inquiry results in proving the day to be the 25th December: but, in despite * Nelson's Companion to the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, p. 53. 140 CHRISTMAS DAY. of all this learning, and this "true account" of the " certain day," it is admitted by Sir Isaac Newton, by Shepherd, and yet more strongly by Brady, in his Clavis Calendaria that " there are not any certain traditions about the years of Christ." (See Newton on Daniel.) " The day of our Lord's Nativity, it is now settled beyond all dispute, by arguments incontroverti- ble, did not take place on the 25th December/' (Brady, vol. ii. p. 330.) These observances have been alternately instituted and abrogated by human authority, and in compliance with human interest or human caprice. The laws of morality remain unchanged in all ages; the commands of God, for any institution, may, at any time, be referred to as a standard ; but how can we be safe, if at one time men in authority can order the observance of days, and at another, time their non-observance; if we are here directed to ob- serve one period, and there compelled to regard another, as sacred to the same object ? Yet such are the inconsis- tencies which the history of feasts and fasts frequently presents us with. In the earlier ages many doubtless did not observe these times and seasons ; yet Christmas is described, by Chrysostom, as a festival " renowned far and wide, from Thrace even to Cadiz, as of all festivals the most venerable — the mother and metropolis of the rest." And although the good people of this country are now commanded by those "in authority " to keep this day holy, they were, during the Commonwealth, commanded also, from the "authority" then existing, to "put down Christmas Day, and all other superstitious festivals;" each command being equally " part and parcel of the law of the land," equally binding upon all pious and loyal sub- jects, and in an equal degree essential to " stir up the dull mind of man" to the performance of his duties. It is, at CHRISTMAS DAY. 141 this time, our duty, according to our Christian lawgivers, to maintain a veneration for this festival; but precisely the contrary was, at one time, binding upon our ances- tors. A scarce tract, published in 1648, informs us that on " Wednesday, December 22, 1647, the crier of Canter- bury, by the appointment of Master Maior, openly pro- claimed that Christmas Day, and all other superstitious festivals should be put down, and that a market should be kept on Christmas Day." And among the single sheets preserved in the British Museum, is an order of parliament, December 24, 1652, directing "that no observation shall be had of the five-and-twentieth day of December, com- monly called Christmas Day; nor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon that day in respect thereof *." Leaving the observers of this festival to settle their own differences, it may be well to proceed to trace the source from whence an observance of Christmas may have been derived; and this source appears to be two-fold; the first, a festival held in Pagan Rome; the other held sacred by the several Northern European nations ; and as both oc- curred at the same season of the year, they appear to have been naturalized by the Roman Catholic church, and en- titled the Mass of Christ, under the plea of commemora- ting the birth of Jesus. The mass of Christ was the mass or eucharist celebrated on the assumed birthday of Christ. To make religion bend to the Pagan prejudices of the people, is an invariable fea- ture in the records of ecclesiastical history. The heathens, even more than the Jews, were averse to the simplicity of the Christian religion; and with the view to their national conversion — not from vice and the practice of abomina- ble rites — hardly even from the objects of their worship, — a project was formed, in the third century, for the purpose * See Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. 142 THE NORTHERN NATIONS. of permitting the new converts to Christianity to observe the festivals of the countries in which they resided, sub- ject to one most remarkable condition : that, "instead of celebrating those days to the honour and in the name of heathen gods, they should dedicate them, and reckon them all sacred to the memory of some martyr or Christian saint ;" for it was argued that " the simple and unskilled multitude, by reason of corporeal delights, remained in the error of idols ; in order, therefore, that the ( principal thing ' might be corrected in them, and that, instead of their own vain worship, they should turn their eyes upon God, they were to be permitted at the memories of holy martyrs to make merry, and to delight themselves, and he dissolved into joy*." These " pious " and " devout" in- structions would seem to have met with the most ample success among our heathen ancestors; who, when they offered human and other sacrifices to the god Odin, con- cluded the ceremony with drinking the healths of their several gods. This custom the Christian missioiiaries could not or would not abolish ; and therefore they in- corporated it with their religious ceremonies, directing that instead of Odin, Niord, and Brage, their converts should drink the health of the saints, of Jesus, and of God ! And, in after times, we learn from Bede, that Pope Gregory, in his letter to Militus, thus instructs him : " Whereas the people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honour of demons, let them celebrate a religious and solemn festival, and not slay the animals to the de- vil, but eat them themselves, to the praise of God!!!" It also appears that St. Augustine and forty other monks were dispatched by Gregory to erect temples to the wor- ship of God in our island; in which project their adop- tion of the Pagan practices mainly caused them to be * See Mallett's Northern Antiquities. LAUD. ALTARS. 143 successful. The heathen temples, with their altars, were left standing entire, but were appropriated to the new religion, and continued so to the period of the Protestant reformation, when these altars were taken down and de- stroyed. So attached, however, were the "simple and unskilled multitude," and the artful and well-skilled priesthood, to what had been the establishments of Ca- tholicism, that Archbishop Laud and others succeeded in re-establishing altars, and the ceremonies connected therewith, in the Protestant churches; and not only in our own country, but also on the continent, the pros- tration of all principle was most complete, not merely to the heathen feasts, but likewise to the minor prejudices and habits of Paganism*. The pastimes too, and sports of the English and other northern nations, afford proof in illustration. The wakes were attempted to be converted into religious institutions, in resemblance of the agappce, or love-feasts of the first Christians ; and such were held upon the day of the dedication of the church in each district, or the birthday of the saint whose relics were therein deposited ; and at these the people were directed by Edgar "to pray devoutly, and not to betake them- selves, as when they tvere heathens, to drunkenness and debauchery : " but it was found in practice impossible strictly to keep the new converts to any observance in which their appetites and passions were not the chief object of gratification ; and therefore " the pepal fell to * The Thracians, the Celts, and the other barbarous tribes settled in Europe, held in contempt every occupation except that of bearing arms ; their priests utterly forbade them the use of letters, pretending that their doctrines were only for the initiated ; and so religiously had this prohibition of the priesthood been observed, that the Saxons, under Louis le Debonnaire, persisted in their resolution of not learning to read, when he, to accommodate them, had the Old and New Testaments turned into verse : they then willingly sttw^them, after theirown manner. 144 WAKES. letcherie, and songs, and dances, and to glotony and sinne, and so turned holyness to cursydness ; whereof the holy faders ordained the pepal to leve that waking and to fast the evyn which is called vigilia." And in proportion as these festivals regained their old character, they increased in popularity; the people flocked together, and the greater the reputation of the tutelary saint, the larger was the as- sembly. Hawkers and pedlars attended, and by degrees the religious wake became a secular fair. From these wakes originated the church ales; for the parish officers finding that at Christmas the wakes drew together a larger number than upon any other holy days, they, together with the priest, turned them to the account of profit, by collect- ing money from them, for the support and repairs of the church; and, by way of enticement, there was brewed ready for the festival a quantity of strong ale, so that in the churches debauchery and excess of the worst kinds were patronized under the sanction of Christmas and other holy days; for when "this huffe cappe — this nectar of life — is set abroach, well is he that can get the soonest to it, where drunken Bacchus bears sway against Christ- mas, and Easter, and Whitsuntide ; and when he that spends the most at it, is counted the godliest man of all the rest, and most in God's favour, because it ts spent in the church ! They bestow that money which is got thereby for the repair of their churches and chapels, books for the service of God, cups for the celebration of the sa- crament, surplices for Sir John, and other necessaries*." The names too, as is well known, of our months and days are themselves evidence of their heathen original : thus January, from the Latin Januarius, in honour of Janus, a heathen god selected by Numa to preside over the year : who was thence represented with two faces, — one the * Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, p. 325. LATIMER. HENRY VIII. 145 old, expressive of his past experience ; the other the new, looking to the coming year. The first of this month was kept by the heathens as a day of extreme rejoicing, upon which they sacrificed to their god Janus, and indulged in every excess. The Christians first held it as a fast to di- stinguish themselves from the heathen ; but it was after- wards conveniently transformed into a pious festival, in commemoration "of the circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ; who, when eight days old, subjected himself to this law, and first shed his sacred blood for us" ! ! ! The heathens by whole nations became Christians, but yet retained their old profanations, and only exchanged the name by which such ceremonies were recognised. The mi- nor and even the unobjectionable customs of the heathen nations received the colour of Christianity; and thus new year's gifts, which were carried to a great extent in pa- gan Rome, became in England, as elsewhere, nationalized, and assumed a religious character ; upon the first day of the year also, truths could be communicated even to the monarch, which, at any other time, would have endangered the life of the party. Thus Bishop Latimer is related to have sent as a new year's gift to Henry VIII. this appro- priate present — a New Testament, richly illuminated, with an inscription on its cover — " Fornicators and Adulterers cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" ! ! ! — a gift, provided a Bishop Latimer could have been found to pre- sent it, which might not have been without its use or ap- plicability in days not long gone by. February, from Februalis, one of the names of Juno. The second day of this month the heathens kept as a festi- val, on which sacrifices for the souls of their ancestors were offered to Pluto; and the Church of England has appointed the second of February as a festival-day, dedicated, not to the infernal deity, but to "the Purification of the Blessed 146 EASTER. Virgin." The Church commentators inform us that the peculiar advantage of this festival is its " being the pro- perest and most necessary season to receive the impres- sion of piety and virtue; " and they add — impiously add — that "so it is then most acceptable to God*" Easter, a feast of the Church held in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus; the derivation of which is also mainly heathen, as well in the character of its obser- vances as in the more palpable import of its title, — from JEastre, a heathen goddess, whose festival was observed in the month of April with great pomp and circumstance. From the second to the fourth centuries the Western and Eastern Churches fiercely disputed the fitting season for its observance ; but at length the Nicene Council termi- nated the controversy, by commanding all to adopt the practice of the Western Church : and the same Council also decreed, that, as the Passover was held by the Jews on the day of the new moon, Easter should not be ob- served at the same time, but on the Sunday succeeding the full moon following the 21st of March. Among the Northern nations there were three great re- ligious festivals ; the first of which was celebrated at the winter solstice, and was called, by pre-eminence, the "Mother Night" it being the longest, and, as was stated, the night upon which the world was created. The second was held in honour of the Earth, or the goddess Frigga, to request of her pleasures, fruitfulness, and victory. The third, in honour of Odin, was celebrated at the commence- ment of Spring. But of these several institutions, the Mother Night took the pre-eminence, as from it was dated the commencement of the year, which was computed from one winter solstice to another. It was held as a feast, celebrated in honour of T/wr; and, in order to ob- * Nelson. YULE. 147 tain fruitful seasons and a propitious year, sacrifices, feast- ing, dances, nocturnal assemblies, and all the demonstra- tions of dissolute joy, were then practised by the North- ern nations. The name of this festival was Yule, or Jule; and it is a remarkable fact that this term, or some other springing therefrom, is even now used in parts of En- gland, and also on the Continent, as expressive of the nativity of Christ. In Sweden and Norway, particu- larly, the old word is retained ; in France it is con- verted into Noel, and in our own country into Yule- tide. The Yule clog, Yule dough, and other minor Christ- inas customs, may be deemed to be illustrative of the heathen character of Christmas and most of its attend- ant observances. When Paganism gave place to what was styled Christianity, the priests tolerated many of the ancient pastimes, and not only authorized a feast at the winter solstice, which they changed to the honour of the "Nativity," from that of the pagan god Thor, but actually, in this instance, and contrary to their general practice, suffered this feast to retain its original pagan appellation of Yule-tide, which " by progressive degrees became synonymous with that of Christmas, though re- tained only among the vulgar, who soon forgot its primi- tive signification *.." In conformity with this species of conversion, the old practice in this country of lighting up churches on Christmas Eve was borrowed from a heathen ceremony at Yule-tide, or the feast of Thor, a deity ty- pified as the Sun; but "the Fathers" represented this practice as the "Light" which was about to be born into the world. In the North of England Yule songs are still sung, whilst elsewhere the priests substituted others, bear- ing a reference to the "Nativity," and which are the cha- racteristic "Christmas Carols." Some authorities, how- * Calendaria, vol. ii. p. 345. l2 148 CHRISTMAS CAROLS. ever, gravely asserted that Angels first introduced the cus- tom of singing these "divine" songs at "the Nativity of our Lord"', in order, however, that these compositions may fairly be compared with poetry of merely a human character, take the following specimen from Davies Gil- bert's collection, and which were set to music*. I. A virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell, Has brought forth a baby, as it hath befell, To be our Redeemer from death, hell, and sin, Which Adam's transgressions had wrapped us in. Chorus. Aye, and therefore be you merry, Rejoice and be you merry ; Set sorrow aside, Christ Jesus our Saviour was born on this tide. II. In Bethlehem, in Jewry, a city there was, Where Joseph and Mary together did pass ; And there to be taxed with many a one mo', For Caesar commanded the same should be so. Aye, and therefore be you merry, &c. III. But when they had entered the city so fair, A number of people so mighty was there, That Joseph and Mary, whose substance was small, Could find in the inn there no lodging at all. Aye, and therefore be you merry, &c. IV. Then were they constrained in a stable to lye, Where horses and asses they used for to tie ; Their lodging so simple they took it no scorn, But against the next morning our Saviour was born. Aye, and therefore be you merry, &c. * Ancient Christmas Carols, with the Tunes to which they were formerly sung in the West of England. ROMANS.— SATURNALIA. 149 V. The King of all Kings to this world being brought, Small store of fine linen to wrap him was sought ; And when she had swaddled her young son so sweet, Within an ox manger she laid him to sleep. Aye, and therefore be you merry, &c. VI. Then God sent an angel from heaven so high, To certain poor shepherds in fields where they lye, And bade them no longer in sorrow to stay, Because that our Saviour was born on this day. Aye, and therefore be you merry, &c. VII. Then presently after the shepherds did spy A number of angels that stood in the sky ; They joyfully talked and sweetly did sing — ** To God be all glory — our heavenly king." Aye, and therefore be you merry, Rejoice and be you merry ; Set sorrow aside, Christ Jesus our Saviour was born on this tide. On Christmas Day these Carols took the place of Psalms in the churches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation joining ; and at the end the parish-clerk de- clared, in a loud voice, his wishes for a merry Christmas and happy new year to all the assembly. With the Romans the feast in honour of Saturn was the most esteemed, and during its celebration all classes gave themselves up to mirth and feasting : — friends sent pre- sents to each other ; masters treated their slaves upon an equal footing ; schools kept holiday; and the senate did not sit. At first it was held but for one day, and that on the 19th of December; afterwards for three days; and, by the order of Caligula, for five days ; two days were then added, (bringing the ceremonies up to the 26th of Decem- ber,) and called " Sigillaria," from small images, which 150 THE SATURNALIA. were sent as presents by parents to their children, — a custom which may illustrate the Christian practice on the day of the " Holy Innocents/' which immediately succeeds Christmas -Day. At the Saturnalia, and at the feast of Bacchus, held about the same season, all restraints were removed from every rank of society, and the whole people wantoned in the indulgence of sensual gratification. Bac- chus was represented as a boy, and it is probable that, with a view of preserving to the people their accustomed idea of a child, this period was preferred as the commemora- tion of the nativity of Jesus ; and the whole festive season, with all its impurities — instead of being any longer, as among our ancestors, the feast of Yule, or, as with the Romans, the "Saturnalia" — was reformed; not in sub- stance, not in manners, not in morals, but in name merely; being transformed into a sacred feast in honour of the birth of Jesus. The reasons for those monstrous and blasphemous, though it must be allowed very character- istic, proceedings, are obvious ; transferring, as they did, to a national religious Establishment nearly all the power and profit which could be derived from encouraging, under the sacred name of religion, even the grossest ignorance, and the lowest vices of mankind. The heathen origin of Christmas is so palpable, that some of the early Church writers have not been backward even in defending the fact; and in Brand* there is given a portion of a very rare tract, from which it appears, that in 1648 Thomas Warmsley, D.D. wrote a " Vindication of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ" in answer to the following questions : Whether this feast had not its rise and growth from Christians' conformity to the mad feasts of Satur- nalia, (kept in December, to Saturn the father of the Gods,) in which there was a sheaf offered to Ceres, god- * Popular Antiquities. CHRISTMAS. 151 dess of corn, and a hymn to her praise ? and, Whether those Christians by name, to cloak it, did not after- wards call it Yule and Christmas, as though it were for Christ's honour? and, Whether it be not yet called Yule, and the mad plays wherewith it is celebrated, like those Saturnalia, are they not our Yule games ? and, Whether, from the gifts of the heathens to their friends on the calen- dar of January, did not arise our new year's gifts ? To these questions the Rev. Doctor, in the above-mentioned Work, makes a reply which, like many other replies, tends — not to the refutation, but to the confirmation of the charge. What, (he argues,) if it should appear that the time of this festival doth comply with the time of the heathen Saturnalia, — this leaves no charge of impiety upon it! " for, since things are best cured by contraries, it was both wisdom and piety in the ancient Christians, whose work it was to convert the heathen from such, as well as other superstitions and miscarriages, to vindicate such times from that service of the devil, by appointing the same to the more solemn and especial service of God.' 9 "Christmas Carols," he observes, "if used with Christian piety, may be profitable, if they be sung with grace in the heart I New year's gifts, if performed without superstition, may be harmless provocations to Christian love"! As it was the custom to present these gifts to the clergy, and the author of the objections was also a clergyman, he is thus rather acutely advised by the more prudent Doctor : — "Trouble not yourself : if you dislike new year's gifts, I would advise your parishioners not to trouble your con- science with them, and all will be well again. " During the Roman Saturnalia, slaves were not merely put by their masters on an equality with themselves, but their masters occasionally waited upon them, honouring them with mock titles, and permitting them to assume 152 FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. their own state and deportment. Even this practice was transferred to our Christmas ceremonies ; thus the society- belonging to Lincoln's Inn had anciently an officer who was honoured with the mock title of "King of Christmas/' and he presided in the hall upon that day : this tempo- rary potentate had a marshal and a steward to attend up- on him. Upon Childermas Day there was another officer, denominated the " King of the Cockneys/' The " King of the Bean/' too, was chosen upon the vigil of the Epi- phany; and at the Court of Edward III. the King's title was conferred, during this festive season, upon His Ma- jesty's trumpeter, — an exchange, perhaps, that kings might often make without disadvantage, at least, to their sub- jects ; all these transpositions at Christmas being de- rived, according to Selden, " from the ancient Saturnalia, or feast of Saturn." These fooleries were exceedingly popular, and were practised in defiance, at first, of the threatenings and remonstrances of some of the clergy; but this accommodating class of men, finding it desirable to follow the stream of vulgar prejudice, eventually satisfied themselves with changing merely the titles of their reli- gious ceremonies, so that the same unhallowed orgies which had disgraced the worship of a heathen deity, were now dedicated to the service of the Almighty, and deemed to be divinely appointed rites. From this stock branched out a variety of unseemly and immoral sports, but none of them more outrageous than the one entitled the "Festival of Fools," which, at the festive seasons, formed a part of "divine service" — when rites and ceremonies, pretending to be of the most sacred character, were turned into ridicule, the priests them- selves participating in the degrading exhibitions. In each of the cathedral churches there was elected, at such pe- riods, a "Bishop, or Archbishop of Fools"; and in the THE NATIVITY. 153 churches immediately dependent upon the Papal See, a " Pope of Fools ' ' . These mock pontiffs had a suite of eccle- siastics to attend upon, and assist at, what they impiously called "divine service"; and, attired in the dresses of play- ers and buffoons, as was the custom in the heathen solem- nities, they were accompanied by crowds of the laity, some disguised with masks, and others dressed as females, in which garb they imitated the manners and the behaviour of the lowest and most abandoned classes of society. During such "divine service," this motley group both of clergy and laity assembled in church : some of them sang indecent songs in the choir; others ate; others drank; others played at dice upon the altar, by the side of the priest whilst celebrating Mass. And after such "solem- nities" they ran about the church, leaping, dancing, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes, as had been the practice in honour of the heathen deities. Another part of the ceremony in remembrance of the " nativity of our Lord," was to shave the "Precentor of Fools" upon a stage erected before the church door; and during the operation his office was to amuse the popu- lace with lewd and vulgar discourses. The " Pope of Fools" performed "divine service," habited (not inappro- priately) in the pontifical garments ; and, thus attired, gave his benediction to the people. He was afterwards drawn in an open carriage, attended by a train of eccle- siastics and laymen, promiscuously mingled together; and many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits, in order to give " their impious fooleries the greater effect*" In the fourteenth century, at this season, we had the "King of Fools"; and the election and investment of the "Boy Bishop" appears to have been de- rived from the Festival of Fools : the whole affording a sin- * See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes. 154 PIOUS OXEN. gularly effective comment on the Rev. Doctor's " Vindica- tion of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ" and well displaying "the wisdom and piety of the ancient Christians in working by contraries, to convert the heathen from su- perstition, and vindicate such times, by appointing them to the solemn service of God." But if the " wisdom and piety" of these parties failed in their experiments upon the human species, it would appear that they were more successful with the brute creation; in attestation of which, let the following statement satisfy the most sceptical : " A superstitious notion prevails in the western parts of De- vonshire, that at twelve o'clock at night, on Christmas Eve, the oxen in their stalls are always found on their knees, as in an attitude of devotion ; and that since the alteration of the style they continue to do this, only on the eve of Old Christmas Day. An honest countryman living on the edge of St. Stephen's Down, in Cornwall, informed me, October 28, 1790, that he once, with some others, made a trial of the above ; and watching several oxen in their stalls, at twelve o'clock at night they ob- served the two oldest oxen only fall upon their knees, and make a cruel moan like Christian creatures*" ! ! There is an old print of the Nativity, in which the oxen in the stable, near Jesus and his mother, are actually represented on their knees, and in a suppliant posture ! ! ! We shall be told that many of the monstrous scenes of depravity, or of folly, which have been related, belonged to times that are long gone by ; that they were perversions of institutions in themselves good ; and that now a " rea- sonable service" supplies the place of our ancient pastimes. It will be admitted that, in their grosser characteristics, the time is gone by for the toleration of such impurities ; and doubtless the progress of enlightenment would have * See Brand's Popular Antiquities. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 155 entirely dissipated them, had there not been a religious character attached thereto. But the religion which adopted them is unchanged ; the Church which claimed the right to " decree rites and ceremonies" is still the National Church ; its support is still imperative as "a part and parcel of the law of the land"; and those who do not keep to the faith of certain creeds agreeably to law, will now, as then, " without doubt perish everlastingly": the denunciations, too, against those who would expose them are not wanting in ferocity; and the iniquity of connect- ing such institutions, having such an original, with the Divine laws, is still continued. It may safely be denied that even the grossest practices recorded were a "per- version" of the original institution of these observances; it having been shown that their institution was not almost — but altogether — heathen, not being esteemed the insti- tution of the Gospel until kings and priests so willed it, impiously daring to affix them to enlightened prin- ciples by means of a character of piety and holiness. But we are told, and that too in defiance of history and of fact, that "the festivals of the Christian Church*" (that is, not the Church of God, but that Church which is "part and parcel of the law of the land,") "were instituted for the most amiable purposes, to keep up a steady and regu- lar succession of religious observances." And one of the highest Church authorities upon these subjects informs us, that the way to keep those 216 holy days of the English Church, is by setting them apart for the exercise of re- ligious duties, and by abstaining from worldly recreations, as such might hinder our attendance upon the worship of God. Yet a Protestant king, (James I.,) the "Defender of the Faith," and the legal head of this same Church, at a period not long preceding the authority last quoted, "did * Brady, Clavis Calendaria. 156 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. justly" (to use his own words,) "rebuke some puritans and precise people, who had punished our good people in Lan- cashire for using their lawful recreations and honest ex- ercises on Sundays, and other holy days, after the after- noon sermon : it is our will that, after divine service, our good people be not disturbed from any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either for men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, nor for having Maypoles, nor Whit- sun ales, nor morris dancers and other sports, so as the same may be had without neglect of divine service." These references to the Established Church are, however, only incidental, the design of these remarks being more the statement of facts than of opinions ; and from those facts it should seem, that nearly the whole of the religious bodies of this and all other " Christian countries," have sanctified the leaders of heathenism and of idolatry : thus, we find certain feasts celebrated with certain observances in honour of heathen deities ; thence we follow the same rites to the Roman Catholic Missal, and there observe that the heathen institutions are sanctioned almost without disguise : from this we proceed to the "Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacrament, and other Rites and Ceremonies, according to the Use of the Church of England "; and there we are presented with the Roman Catholic Calendar, somewhat curtailed, but still the les- sons, collects, &c, almost wholly zmreformed : thence we direct our attention to the Presbyterians, who observe the Thursdays previous to receiving the Lord's Supper as so- lemn fasts, and who enact that out of the " visible church there is no ordinary possibility of salvation," and who almost claim a sort of divine right for the Presbyterian form of church government. Mr. Wesley, as the great lawgiver of the Methodists, boasts, that his sect "adhere to all that they learned when DISSENTERS. 157 they were children in their Catechism and Common Prayer Book ; that they agree with the Church of England in ex- ternals and circumstantials ; that they observe the Church days of fasting and abstinence, the forty days of Lent, the Ember Days, the Rogation Days, and all the Fridays in the year, except Christmas Day." A portion of the Unitarian body are also distinguished by their acquiescence in many of the ceremonial ob- servances of the National Church, and have a reformed "Book of Common Prayer," — "the seventh edition, with additional Collects," containing "the Liturgy as now used in Essex Street/' in which there is the Order for the Morning Prayer every "Lord's day throughout the year, the same to be used with the proper Collects upon Christ- mas Day, Good Friday, Easter Day, and Whitsuntide," together with other imitations of the first-born of the Woman of Babylon; as regards even the dress of the mi- nister ; the forms of the service ; the prayers, amongst which are those for "the burial of the dead," "prayers to be used in His Majesty's navy every day," "prayers be- fore a fight at sea," and "prayers for single persons that cannot join with others by reason of the fight." Thus the whole presents, as far as English Dissenters are concerned, a striking contrast to that of their sturdy predecessors in the primitive times of dissent from Po- pery: the whole furnishing but too strong a ground for the accusation, that amongst them "a resemblance to the Church is rather affected than avoided ; their places of worship are no more called meetings, but chapels ; their ministers assume the title of Reverend \ in some cases both the liturgy and surplice are used. The Dissenting chapels are like cheap shops ; there is more show in their windows, more bowing for custom, than among the old- 158 THE SABBATH. established traders; but the difference is in the quality, not in the appearance of the article*." Still, desirous as the National Church maybe to sustain its monopoly of heathenism and popery, by excluding from the market its less privileged competitors, it is a fair subject for scepticism as to whether its hierarchy and clergy can feel in- debted to the discretion or good taste of their advocate, in what some might feel as but too true an application to their avocations of the phraseology of mercantile pursuits. The Sabbath. — To the Sabbath is apportioned a pre- eminent position amongst our national and church fes- tivals, and in its discussion there is involved a most ela- borate textual controversy; but previously to entering upon an examination of the same, a sketch of the promi- nent characteristics of the Sabbath may not be deemed unsuitable. "The Sabbath/'— -"the rest"— is the allotment of a given portion of time for special objects, and which ob- jects are of a precise and defined nature. The autho- rity for such an observance must be held to depend, not upon inference or surmise, but upon those distinctive marks which appertain to all the positive institutions of the Deity, and in regard to which their chief purposes are presumed to consist. These distinctive marks are, 1 . Di- vine authority; 2. Time; 3. Place; 4. Upon whom bind- ing; 5. How to be observed, and for what purposes; 6. Whether limited as to time, or perpetual. The argument ranges under three divisions : — First, The Paradisaical Sabbath ; second, The Jewish Sabbath ; third, The Christian Sabbath, or "Lord's Day." * Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq., upon his Durham Speech, and three Articles in the last Edinburgh Review upon the Support of the Clergy. 1823. PARADISAICAL SABBATH. 159 The Paradisaical Sabbath. — The authority for such an observance is held to consist in one, and in but one passage of the Scriptures (Genesis ii. 2, 3.), and which passage is deemed to have established, in " the times of man's inno- cency," the institution in question, and to have made it of perpetual and of universal obligation. The Mosaic account of the Creation is of peculiar inter- est ; and although some naturalists and geologists, be- cause of the known existence of certain phaenomena, take exception to parts, or even to the whole of that remarkable relation, yet, even could their dissent be fairly sustained, Revelation would not be shaken thereby, the narration being traditional, and not assuming to have been derived from Divine authority. Still, it cannot in fairness be viewed as other than a record of high and peculiar value ; and whilst conveyed in a phraseology not in every instance admitting of a strictly literal interpretation, it yet presents single expressions, and entire passages, which are charac- terized by great sublimity and beauty. The time occupied in the creation of the material world, and all that it contains, is stated to have been "six days"; a mode, this, of conveying the fact of successive creation, which, if literally taken as six natural days, however well when recorded it might be adapted to the narrow compass of the human understanding, but ill comports with suit- able conceptions of the works of the great Architect of the Universe. These days, numbered from one to six, may rather be deemed to express periods*, separated from each other by such portions of time as the maturing of each distinct part of creation would, agreeably to the laws of Nature, require : hence, the following progression in the narration : — * See Michaelis. See also a valuable article in The Freethinking Christian's Quarterly Register, 1823, — " Fall of Man disproved." 160 MOSAIC HISTORY OF THE CREATION. Firsts The causing that which had been in chaotic dark- ness, and without form and void, to be visited with light ; then the division of the firmament ; then the separation of the land from the waters ; then "every herb of the field, and every plant"; then they were made productive by "a mist going up from the earth and watering the whole face of the ground"; from thence vegetation advanced, — the earth brought forth grass, the herbs yielded seed, and the fruit- trees yielded fruit ; then the creation of fish ; and subse- quently, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the forest, to- gether with u everything that creepeth upon the earth "; and when the " heavens and the earth were finished, and the host of them," then man was made in the image (i. e. the representative) of God, with dominion over the cre- ation thus formed. This view of successive creation, at periods of time pro- bably far removed from each other, tends wholly to relieve the Bible history of the Creation from the presumed con- tradiction to its statements which is furnished by well-at- tested geological remains, the existence of which is deemed to be wholly incompatible with confining the operations recorded to six successive natural days, or generally to a strictly literal interpretation of the narrative ; it also re- ceives support from the known laws which are considered to govern life, whether animate or inanimate. w Species may have been created in succession, at such times, and in such places, as to enable them to multi- ply and endure for an appointed period, and occupy an appointed space on the globe. In order to explain this theory, let us suppose every living thing to be destroyed in the Western hemisphere, both on the land and in the ocean, and permission to be given to man to people this great desert, by transporting into it animals and plants from the Eastern hemisphere, a strict prohibition being MOSES. — lyell's geology. 161 enforced against introducing two original stocks of the same species. Now the result, we conceive, of such a mode of colonizing would correspond exactly, so far as regards the grouping of animals and plants, with that now observed throughout the globe. It would be necessary for natu- ralists, before they imported species into particular locali- ties, to study attentively the climate and other physical conditions of each spot. It would be no less requisite to introduce the different species in succession, so that each plant and animal might have time and opportunity to mul- tiply before the species destined to prey upon it was ad- mitted. Many herbs and shrubs, for example, must spread far and wide before the sheep, the deer, and the goat could be allowed to enter, lest they should devour and annihilate the original stocks of many plants, and then perish them- selves for want of food. The above-mentioned herbivorous animals in their turn must be permitted to make consider- able progress before the entrance of the first pair of wolves and lions. Insects must be allowed to swarm before the swallow could be permitted to skim through the air and feast on thousands at one repast "V And assuming Lyell's theory to be well founded, it admirably comports with this view of the Mosaic history of the Creation, and, as a jus- tification for its introduction in this case, will sufficiently tend to aid us in the subsequent argument as to the total irrelevancy of the seventh day named in this connexion to any institution, or as binding upon man any sab- batical observance whatever. At the same time we may feel deeply impressed with the consciousness that no other necessity could exist for successive and distant periods of creation, than the submission of all animal and vegetable life to those laws which have been affixed to each by the Creator of heaven and earth ; and that, did it comport * Lyell's Geology, vol. ii. pp. 124, 125. M 162 PARADISAICAL SABBATH. with his laws, the Being who said "'Let there be light/ and there was light," could, in an inconceivably small por- tion of time, call myriads of worlds, and their inhabitants, into existence. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made*." This simple relation — the phraseology of which cannot well be taken literally, partaking as it does of the same character, and requiring an application of the same principles of in- terpretation as the preceding narration — has been made to bend to the following large hypothesis, That it records the establishment of a Sabbatical Institution, to be binding upon the whole of mankind for ever, taking in of course the savage and the civilized man ; the believer in God, and also those that may never have heard of his name ; the Jew and the idolater; the subject of the kingdom of God, and the subject of what in the New Testament is called the kingdom of Satan {i.e. the adversary, the world) ! "God rested on the seventh day, and sanctified it." It has already been intimated that the seventh day in common with the first, to the sixth, can have no reference to the natural day which is so entitled ; and in the summing up of the preceding account of the Creation, the detail of the seven distinct and successive days is thus passed by : " These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens f." The idea, indeed, of the Creator of the Universe literally requiring rest, would truly be the bringing down to the narrow compass of hu- * Gen. ii. 2, 3. t Ibid. ii. 4. PARADISAICAL SABBATH. 163 man conception, the Maker of heaven and earth. " Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary*? " " God is not like to some dull artificer, having need of sleep, and weary of his labours ; for he spake the word only, and all things were made The meaning of the text is, that God then desisted from adding anything de novo unto the world by him created f •*" But, passing by all these views, let the case be met in its literal aspect, it being put thus by Michaelis : — u Moses found a custom among the people, established from the very earliest period, by which they solemnized the Sabbath day, and it is probable that the Egyptians had left this day to them as a day of rest, at least he describes this solemnity as instituted by God immediately after the creation J.' ' Scriptural evidence by which the assertions of Michaelis can be supported is much wanting. There is a total absence of proof that Moses found any species of sabbatical obser- vance, even known to, much less established amongst, the Israelites : there is not a phrase which can admit of an inference that their task-masters permitted them to have the seventh day, or any other day, free from labour, and appropriated to sabbatical observances; neither do the verses in Genesis prove that the Sabbath, or any other so- lemnity designed for the observance of mankind, was then commanded or instituted by God. God gave one com- mandment, and but one, to our first parent: — "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it§." * Isa. xl. 28. f Heylin, History of the Sabbath, p. 335. X Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. iii. p. 156. § Gen. ii. 16, 17. M 2 164 PARADISAICAL SABBATH. Institutions were given as the men selected by God in- creased in numbers, in wants, and in civilization. Had the Sabbath been thus early commanded, — had its observance been conceded to the Israelites by the Egyptians, — had Moses really u found " it an existing institution when he became their divinely appointed leader, — had there been a tradition even of its existence, — how is it that there is no reference to such throughout the patriarchal ages, when very minute details are given of comparatively unimportant matters ? How is it that of Abraham, who whilst because of his obedience to the commands of God he received the distinguished honour of having assured unto him, that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed, yet that even of him there should be no record that he was an observer of a " solemnity instituted by God immediately after the creation," ' — he who even when in the land of the Philistines Ci planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God," and who brought up his children and his household to follow in his footsteps ? How can it be accounted for, if thus instituted, and if the "Egyptians had left the Israelites this day as a day of rest," that when they had escaped from slavery, and were their own masters, they should have so wholly for- gotten the observance of this "established solemnity/'' that they should require to be drilled into it by direct Diviue in- terference — by an extraordinary miracle, and by the reiter- ated commands of their leader; and that, despite even of such means to effect its then establishment amongst them, it yet " came to pass that there went out some of the people to gather(manna) on the seventh day, and they found none," and in consequence of this disobedience on the part of some to the command then given, "the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws ? . . . . The Lord hath given you the sabbath, there- THE WILDERNESS. — PALEY. 165 fore he giveth you (i. e. for the first time) on the sixth day the bread of two days : abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day*"} The kind of disobedience in the instance above cited, proves a previous ignorance of any such institution. So in the earlier part of the same chapter the effect upon "the rulers " of the gathering by some of a double quantity of manna, induces the same conclusion. For of the manna they were to gather one omer for each man : " And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning; " but "it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered two omers for one man." This being deemed to be a violation of the previous command, and the Jirst sabbath day not having yet taken place, " all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses" And Moses "said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord" And then follow such directions, in relation to its observance, as are wholly incompatible with a previously known and established institution : " Bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, . . . and it did not stink. . . . And Moses said, Eat that today ; for today is a sabbath unto the Lord : today ye shall not find it in the field.' ' " The transaction in the wilderness was the first actual institution of the Sabbath ; nor is there in the passage above quoted any intimation that the Sabbath when ap- pointed to be observed was only the revival of an ancient institution which had been neglected, forgotten, or sus- pended ; nor is any such neglect imputed either to the in- habitants of the Old World, or to any part of the family * Exod. xvi. 28, 29. 166 PARADISAICAL SABBATH. of Noah ; nor is any permission recorded to dispense with the institutions during the captivity of the Jews in Egypt, or on any other public emergency *." But apart from all these views, and taking the two verses in Genesis literally as they stand, they relate that which God did on the seventh day, and also why he did it : but they do not furnish a record of any institution ; neither do they contain any command ; nor do they refer to, as binding upon man, a sabbatical or any other observance whatever. If indeed such an institution was then esta- blished, it was so by God, and is not commanded for the observance of man. If an example was then set, it was an example as affecting God alone ; the literal record be- ing, that on the seventh day God having ended his work, he rested on that day; he blessed and sanctified it/' And for what purpose ? " Because that on it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." It should be borne in mind that this statement was written from two to three thousand years after the time of Adam ; that the author was a Jew, and that he wrote at a period when the Sabbath had been unequivocally established amongst his countrymen. Moses having descended from Mount Sinai, God through him delivered his will to the people. This communication was that which is so appro- priately entitled Commandments ; and to enforce which the authority from whence they emanated might be supposed, as it related to God, to supersede any statement of reasons for the same; yet the record of the Decalogue as contained in the twentieth chapter of Exodus presents a verse (the 11th) which is almost identical with the passages in Ge- nesis ; and with regard to which, as it interferes with the character and tends to destroy the unity of that sacred document, the suggestion as to how far it was originally a * Paley, vol. ii. p. 260. PARADISAICAL SABBATH. 167 marginal note, and subsequently incorporated with the text, may not be undeserving of attention ; especially as the corresponding enumeration of the Ten Commandments in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy does not present any reference to the point contained in the above verse. But in either case it is abundantly manifest that had the ob- servance been, prior to the time of Moses, an established one amongst the Jews, their ignorance of its character- istics, and of their own practices too, would require a miracle to account for it, and even then would place the authority of the prophet, as it relates to Sabbaths, in a shape more than questionable. "Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness; and I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgements Moreover also I gave them (the Jews, not the whole of mankind, not from the 'very earliest period/ but after they were 'brought forth from Egypt/) my sabbaths, (not because the Deity had finished the creation in six days, and rested on the seventh, but) to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them*." * Ezek. xx. 10—12. 168 CHAPTER II. THE JEWISH SABBATH. It being conceded that the observance of a Sabbath ought not to rest upon inference, — that the knowledge of such an institution is not derivable from nature, — and that to be binding upon the believers of the Gospel of Jesus, or upon all mankind, it must expressly and positively be com- manded by Divine authority to be upon these parties thus binding, the nature of our inquiries becomes at once nar- rowed, and, what is still better, distinct and denned. It has been seen that the Paradisaical Sabbath is wholly wanting in the inseparable characteristics of & positive or perpetual institution', and the importance of the point be- ing distinctly established will be correctly estimated by a perusal of the writings of some of the best informed and most liberal amongst the defenders of the observance of the modern Sabbath, — these parties having admitted that the sabbatical observance instituted by Moses in the wil- derness, and subsequently commanded by God on Mount Sinai, was a command and an institution exclusively Jew- ish, and as such necessarily sharing the fate of all the other Jewish institutions, upon the destruction of their na- tional polity. " To your opinions respecting the abolition of the Jewish ceremonial rites, and amongst them that of the Sabbath, I cordially assent. I admit, with yourself and Paley and Beausobre, that no mention is made of a Sabbath before the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilder- JEWISH SABBATH. 169 ness; — I grant that no passage is to be found in the New Testament directing the observance of a Sabbath ; — nay, more, I allow that our Saviour himself, though no Sabbath breaker, as you represent him, did, as Lord of the Sabbath, both by word and deed, give intimation to the Jews of its approaching dissolution, and that St. Paul did exhort his converts to omit the observance of this and other ordi- nances, which Christ had as it were blotted out^ — NAILING THEM TO THE CROSS *." This clear, comprehensive and true statement as to the Scriptural evidence touching the Sabbath, and also the joint authorities of the Messiah and of Paul, might be supposed to be, not almost, but altogether decisive as to the Divine authority for the present observance thereof: but it is not so, not even with the candid and enlightened author from whose work the passage is selected; and it therefore becomes the more necessary to recur to the broad and di- stinctive features which characterize the Jewish Sabbath, as,, in regard to authority, it, and it alone, has the essential marks of a positive and Divine institution. First, Its Divine authority. The Israelites when in the wilderness were commanded to gather on the sixth day a double portion of manna; for "the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sab- bath unto the Lord. . . . Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none." This, as has been conceded by the late (T. S. Hughes) Christian Advocate of Cambridge, by Paley, and still more recently by Dr. Whately^ the present Archbishop of Dublin, is not merely the first institution, but it is the first time that the Sabbath is mentioned in the Scriptures; and the whole * See A Letter to G. Higgins, Esq., on his Horce Sdbbaticce, by the Rev. T. S. Hughes, B.D., Christian Advocate in the University of Cam- bridge, pp. 4, 5. Rivington, 1826. 170 JEWISH SABBATH. relation proves that previously to this time it had had no existence in any shape amongst the people : thus, on the seventh day, without regard to the new command, some went out to gather manna, and "the Lord said unto Moses (as to such persons), How long refuse ye to keep my com- mandments and my laws ? For the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days So the people rested on the seventh day*/' And, finally, the observance by the Jews was sealed on Mount Sinai by the command of God, — ■" Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy/' Second, How to be observed. Abstinence from labour, — a day of rest, — ceasing from any kind of work. " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work : but the seventh is the sabbath day of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates f," "Whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to deathly." Third, Upon whom binding, and for what purpose. Upon the Jewish people only, and upon the Jewish so long as, and no longer than, they continued to be the peo- ple of God. — "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou unto the children of Israel, saying, 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 (set you apart) §. " — "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day\\" — "Blessed is the man that doeth this, * See Exod. xvi. 28—30. f Ibid. xx. 9, 10. % Ibid. xxxi. 15. § Ibid. xxxi. 12, 13. || Deut. v. 15. JEWISH SABBATH. 171 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*. 5 ' — " The seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation ; ye shall do no work therein : it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings f ." From these and corresponding passages, we derive a knowledge of this institution, — possessing, as it does, all the distinc- tive marks which a national observance must necessarily require, and which, in all the principles that make it fitting and imperative upon a nation, it possesses in common with the whole of the other Jewish institutions, — there being no point left in uncertainty, — nothing left to choice, — no- thing to inference, — no possibility of controversy or of misconception or error in relation to the command for its observance, — the manner, — the time, — the object and the specific punishment in cases of its neglect or abuse ; and it cannot be too strongly borne in mind, that in each and in all of these indispensable characteristics the Paradisai- cal Sabbath is wholly wanting; and in the subsequent pages it will be seen that the Christian Sabbath, or Lord's Day, is alike destitute of Scriptural authority, and that both are without any claim upon our observance ; for, as has been truly, although from the authority from whence derived, somewhat singularly said, "positive precepts are such as require conduct of moral beings which, antecedent- ly to the promulgation of them, was not their duty, and independently of them would never have become their duty}." Where are the "positive precepts" for the observance — from the Creation to the end of time, and by all mankind whether savage or civilized, whether believers in Revelation * Isa. lvi. 2. t Levit. xxiii. 3. X The Perpetuity of the Sabbath, by the Rev. Timothy Dwight, LL.D, London edit. p. 8. 172 THE JEWISH SABBATH NOT ESSENTIALLY or unbelievers — of the " Paradisaical Sabbath," or of the "Lord's Day," or "Christian Sabbath"? Of the Jewish Sabbath the "positive precepts" have been recounted ; and it may be of service to keep these precepts in remembrance. The term ' Sabbath' is applied in the Scriptures to other times and seasons besides the seventh day. Sabbath is also taken for the whole week, likewise for all the Jewish festivals indifferently*. a Keep my sabbaths," — that is, my feasts, as the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles. Ezekiel says that " sabbaths are signs that God has given to his people, to distinguish them from other nations\" Jennings, Michaelis, and a host of minor authorities, as- sume that u the Sabbath" of the Jews was a religious in- stitution especially appropriated to divine worship. The latter states that u the seventh day of the week was or- dained to be a day of divine worship X;" and the former maintains that u the seventh day of the week was by the Jewish law peculiarly consecrated to the service ofGod§." For Scriptural authority for these assertions, the laws instituting the Sabbath afford little, if any, countenance; and whilst a view the direct reverse, and which should go to affix an exclusively civil and political character to the institution, might be contending for too much, — still the position may be held to be tenable which should main- tain, that in object and in duties the Jewish Sabbath was essentially a local, civil, and political institution ; being no further religious than as all the political institutions of the Jews were so, and, in a certain sense, resulting from the peculiar and exclusive relationship in which the He- * See Levit. xix. 3, 30. t See Cruden's Concordance. \ Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. iii. p. 150. § Jennings's Jewish Antiquities, 1823, p. 428. A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION. 17$ brews stood towards God and the theocratic government under which they lived. The seventh day is spoken of as the "sabbath of rest," — a rest from labour, and not one of religious observance, — a rest for the servant in common with the master, "that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as xuell as thou*;" and for the ox and the ass alike with the manservant and the maidservant. No officer was ap- pointed specifically for Sabbath celebrations; no worship or forms were prescribed for that day, unless the sacrifice can be so deemed, — that being the only Sabbath service approaching to religion, the priests making on the Sabbath double offering f: but even the double sacrifices were by the priests only ; they were the token of a peculiar cove- nant, and the people did not personally join in them, — the people, as such, having no command for any public reli- gious acts, or forms of devotion, on the Sabbath day. The strength of these facts may possibly account for the forced interpretation, as well as the unfitting importance which some commentators have laboured to attach to the passage "God blessed the seventh day, and halloived itf." Le Clerc shows that the phrase "hallowing" means abstain- ing from work or labour: thus in Jeremiah, "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 \" And in the instance of the man 1 1 who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day being stoned to death for the act, the violation was his having worked, i. e. not hallowed the Sabbath day. "Doing no work on the Sabbath, and hallowing or sanctifying it, are plainly used as expressions of the same import^." * Deut. v. 14. \ Numb, xxviii. 9. % Gen. xx. 11. § Jerera. xvii. 22 : see also verse 24. || Numb. xv. 32. ^ See Jennings, p. 442. 174 JEWISH SABBATH NOT RELIGJOUS. Iii the passage already quoted from Leviticus, the seventh day is called "the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation*" and Jennings labours to sustain the view, that holy convo- cations "are most naturally to be understood of assemblies for religious worship*." He is, however, not supported in this view by the no mean authorities Le Clerc and Vitringa. It is also said that a "holy convocation" means a holy as- sembly as in our national churches. This view cannot be sustained : it means a domestic meeting, — an assembly in their homes, as shown in the latter part of the verse, "The seventh day is a sabbath of rest, an holy convocation ; ye shall do no work therein ; it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." And this statement is followed by one relating to the Passover : " These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passoverf." The Passover was kept in their houses, not at the tem- ple ; and it may be remarked in passing, that when the Lord's Supper is, somewhat strangely, compared to the Passover, this distinction is not remembered, — the Jews kept the Passover, not with the priests/but each man at the head of the table in his own house :^so with the holy con vocation, — a meeting in theirown homes. And assuming these views to be a correct representation of the passages in which the phrases "hallowed," " sanctified," and "holy convocation" occur, it would be difficult to find any other passages which could be tortured into the support of the doctrine that the Jewish Sabbath was appointed by God for public devotion as well as for rest ; and this difficulty- is so apparent, that the advocates for its religious character feel the position in which the absence of evidence places their case. " It is a matter of considerable difficulty to * Jennings, p. 443. f Levit. xxiii. 4, 5. SABBATICAL YEAR. JUBILEE. 175 determine whether the Levitical law enjoined upon the people the practice of public worship on this day : the only thing that appears to sanction the opinion is, that it is in several places said to be c an holy convocation, which de- notes an assembly — a convocation ' : the phrase, however, is too doubtful in its signification to warrant us in affirm- ing this to have been the case*." And thus, to view the Sabbath as mainly a civil and political, and not even a re- ligious Jewish institution, the following passage from Heylinmay not be deemed unimportant: "In the Sabbath, that which was principally aimed at was rest from labour, that neither they (the Jews) nor any that belonged unto them should do any manner of ivork upon that day, but sit still and rest themselves. Their meditating on God's word, or on his goodness manifested in the world's crea- tion, was to that an accessory ; and as for reading the Law in the congregation, that ivas not taken up in more than a thousand years after the Law was given ; and being taken up came in by ecclesiastical ordinance only, — no di- vine authority -f." The Sabbatical Year, and the Year of Jubilee, were also in their arrangement essentially political, being in no other sense religious than as connected, in common with the other Jewish institutions, with their theocracy. And the Sabbatical year was the seventh year's rest for the land of Judea, as well as for the people : " When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord J." There was to be a total cessation from agricultural labour; for "thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard §." "Six years thou shalt sow thy * See Holden on the Christian Sabbath, ch. iii. ; and Carpenter's Intro- duction to the Study of the Scriptures, p. 444. f Heylin's History of the Sabbath, p. 435, 2nd edit. 1723. § Levit. xxv. 4. 176 SABBATICAL YEAR. land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive-yard*." And, as arising out of these important civil and political arrangements, the power and the especial superintendence of their God and their King is caused to be developed ; for, " if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year ? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then /will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years f ." The Sabbatical Year also provided for the release from personal slavery : " If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve : and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing J." For the remission of debts : "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release : Every creditor that lendeth aught unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release^." During this year also the Law was appointed to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles : "And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and ob- serve to do all the words of this law, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess * Exod. xxiii. 10, 11. f Levit. xxv. 20, 21. + Exod. xxi. 2. § Deut. xv. 1, 2. JUBILEE. EQUALITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. 177 it*" "Thus," says Maimonides, "whoever locked up his vineyard, or hedged in his field on the seventh year, broke a commandment ; and so likewise if he gathered all the fruits into his house : all was to be free, and every man's hand alike in all places." The Jubilee was the grand Sabbatical Year, and was ushered in with trumpets throughout all the land of Israel. This was a year of general release, not only from all debts, but of all slaves, and of all lands and possessions which had been sold or otherwise alienated from the families and tribes to which they originally belonged. u And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABIT- ANTS thereof : it shall be a jubilee unto you ; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto youf." Thus it is apparent that the same principles of national, civil, and political regulations, run through the seventh- day sabbath, the seventh-year sabbath, and the seven sep- tenaries of years' sabbath. The seventh- day sabbath ap- points that cessation from bodily labour which in any country, but especially in an Asiatic climate, would seem to be desirable for the mental as well as for the bodily well- being of man. The seventh-year sabbath is alike marked by the wisdom and benevolence of its civil and political provisions, it being essential that the land should not be worn out by continual tilling, or man by continual toil. And the Jubilee sanctifies the great principles of the equal liberty and equal privileges of the entire people. The peo- ple were made to know the Law by its being publicly read to them every seventh year. The distinctiveness of their * Deut. xxxi. 10—13. f See Levit. xxv. 10, 11. 1/8 POLITICAL EQUALITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. tribes was preserved ; but, unlike their heathen neigh- bours, they were not divided into castes; they were all equal in the eye of the Law, and their equality was main- tained by means of the laws of the Jubilee, and they were saved from the possible existence of that absurd abo- mination, an hereditary aristocracy; thus "if God was not the sovereign of the Jewish state, the Law was, — the best and only safe vicegerent of Almighty Providence to which the welfare of human communities can be intrusted. If the Hebrew commonwealth was not a theocracy, it was a nomocracy : on the other hand, if, as we suppose, in the Mosaic polity the civil was subordinate to the religious end, still the immediate well-being of the community was not sacrificed to the more remote object. The Hebrew commonwealth was so constituted as to produce — all cir- cumstances of the times, the situation, and the character of the people considered — as much or more real happiness and independence than any existing or imaginary govern- ment of ancient times # ." Such, then, were the means which the Divine Being, in this early stage of society, adopted for the constantly ad- vancing civilization and improvement of his chosen people, — their worship of him in their national and also in their individual capacity being secured by means of their laws, of the priesthood, the tabernacle, the temple, and other distinct and positive provisions. Hence, the extraordi- nary assertions of some of the modern defenders of the Sabbath will be seen to be in no small degree at variance with the law and with the testimony : and in the way of illustration, and as from one of a class of writers, take the following positions of Dr. Dwight. "The Sabbath is the only mean ever devised of commu- * See Millman's valuable and enlightened " History of the Jews," Family Library, No. V. p, 161. DR. DWIGHT. THE WORSHIP OF THE MIND. 179 nicating important instruction to the great mass of man- kind/' "Wherever the Sabbath is not, there is no wor- ship, no religion ; man forgets God, and God forsakes man', the moral world becomes a desert, where life never springs and beauty never smiles ; the beams of the Sun of righteousness never dawn upon the miserable waste ; the rains of heaven never descend *." ! ! And yet, despite of these dogmatical assertions, the Sabbath commanded by God on Mount Sinai was local as to its operation, and in some of its minor provisions hardly appropriate out of Judea : it was also limited in duration ; and even when combined with sacrifices, and with such other festivals as were likewise entitled sabbaths, was declared by the Prophet to be held by God in a degree of estimation very subordinate to that pure and mental worship which to a spiritual Being was most acceptable : and, as ultimately introductory to such mental worship, the Sabbath, in com- mon with the whole of the Mosaic ritual, was appointed; — for, "To what purpose, " says Isaiah, "is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord.... Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me 5 the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with Your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them. . . .Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widowf." With the pure and holy and lofty strains of the Pro- phet the personal conduct and teaching of Jesus and his Apostles will be found very strikingly to accord ; and as it relates to the Sabbath, and other Jewish institutions, * Dwight On the Sabbath, pp. 93, 95. t Isaiah i. 11 — 17. n2 180 PREPARATIVES FOR THE ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. Isaiah may be looked upon as their distinguished precur- sor. The Sabbath was u neglected, not at once and upon the sudden, but leisurely and by degrees. There were preparatives unto the Sabbath before it was proclaimed as a law by Moses, and there were some preparatives re- quired before that law of Moses was repealed : these we shall easily discover, if we shall please to look on our Sa- viour's actions, who gave the first hint unto his disci- ples for the abolishing the Sabbath amongst other cere- monies." The abrogation of the Sabbath shows plainly that it "was no part of the moral law, or law of Nature, there being no law natural which is not perpetual. Ter- tullian takes it for confest that it was only a temporary constitution*." Jesus, soon after the commencement of his ministry, shocked the sabbatical feelings of his country- men by permitting his disciples, when passing through the corn-fields, to satisfy their cravings of hunger, and also in his own person by healing the sick and cleansing the leper, on the Sabbath Day : and when accused of doing that which was not lawful by the ruler of the synagogue, who manifested indignation because the sick had been healed on the Sabbath Day, and said unto the people, " There are six days in which men ought to work ; in them come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day," Jesus re- plies by proclaiming his dispensing power over even the Sabbath. But had the institution been that which certain of its defenders assert it was, namely, a part of the moral law, and given for universal and for perpetual observance, then the Messiah had not, and could not have such autho- rity : but in truth, the " sabbath being made for man, and not man for the sabbath, therefore the Son of man is Lord [master] even of the sabbath f." And whilst the * Heylyn, 401. f See Matth. xii., Mark ii., Luke xiii. CONDUCT OF JESUS AS TO THE SABBATH. 181 Jews persecuted Jesus, and " sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day, Jesus an- swered them, My Father ivorketh hitherto, and I ivork ; therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father *." Thus Jesus persevered in being that cc sab- bath-breaker " which the author of the Horce Sabbaticce asserts he was, — his teaching, as well as his conduct, being in attestation thereof ; for " it will be plainly seen, that Jesus did decidedly and avowedly violate the Sabbath f" The reasoning of the passage stands thus: — An ordi- nance made for man, and not man for it, may be dispensed with by my authority : "the Sabbath is such an ordinance ; therefore the Sabbath may be dispensed with by my au- thority j." Jesus came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill : " For verily I say unto you, .... one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. " The Law was local and terminable, and part of its fulfilment rapidly approaching. The ceremonial ob- servances of which the Sabbath formed a part were con- nected therewith; the dissolution of the national polity was at hand ; the middle wall of partition was about to be broken down ; the Gentiles were on the eve of admission, in common with the Jews, into a new, a more mental, and a purer relationship towards God. And hence the ap- propriateness of, as well as necessity for, the conduct of Jesus, who, whilst he made no pretensions to a dispensing power in respect to moral duties, treated the great p osi- tive ordinance of the Sabbath as being of very subordinate consideration, — preparatory, doubtless, to the marked con- demnation by Paul of its pharisaical observance, and to its *. John v. 16—18. f Whately, p. 17. % Sec Thoughts on the Sabbath, by the present Archbishop of Dublin. 182 THE SYNAGOGUE. final extinction as a Divine ordinance, in common with the other ceremonial observances of the Mosaic ritual. " Have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blame- less ? But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple*/' " It is true," says Heylyn, " that Jesus did frequently repair unto the synagogues on the Sabbath Day, and did read and expound the Law unto the people/' It should, however, be noted, that the synagogue was not appointed by Divine authority ; that it did not exist until ages after the institution of the Sabbath; and that Jesus and others, availing themselves of the day, did read and expound the Law, which was a valuable employment on such a day; but there was no religious rite or ceremonial observance in any way connected therewithf. Paul, following in the footsteps of his great master, thus laments over the members of the church of God who re- spected outward ordinances : " Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" And as to a preference for days, the Apostle proposes the widest latitude, attesting every man in the church, not by the observance or non-observance of any especial day, but by the conscience of each individual. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth One man esteemeth one day above another : another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that re- gardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard * Matth. xii. 5, 6. f See Heylyn. See also a comprehensive and able article on Wor- ship, in the FrecthinJcing Christian's Quarterly Register, 1823. PAUL OPPOSED TO THE SABBATH. ] 83 it*." And to the church at Galatia the Apostle is even more marked in relation to the principle of the utter worthlessness of this class of observances, in his fervid denunciation thereof : " How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vainf /* But the most important passage touching the present inquiry, and one which may be viewed as decisive in re- lation to apostolic authority, is addressed by Paul to the church at Colosse : "And you (Gentiles), being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he (Jesus) quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, nailing it to his cross Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in re- spect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sab- bath days : which are a shadow of things to come J." With such absolute testimony as the above, and so un- equivocally applicable, first, to the principle of sabbatical or other ceremonial observance, and secondly, to the spe- cific fact of such observance, how, consistently with in- genuousness and Scriptural knowledge, can the following, amidst a multitude of similar declarations, be adequately accounted for ? " The duties of the Sabbath must be ac- knowledged to have been left by Christ and his Apostles exactly as they found them, and all declarations to the contrary must be regarded as merely gratuitous and pre- sumptive^' ! ! ! But it is not merely the New Testament records which the American author and his party set at nought, for they alike pass by the ordinary sources of * Romans xiv. 4 — 6. f Galat. iv. 9 — 11. \ Coloss. ii. 13—17. § See Dwight, p. 82. 184 DR. DWIGHT. Biblical critical authority : thus, " St. Paul calls the Jew- ish ritual ' the shadow of things to come/ c figures,' ' an- titypes/ c the whole law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ,' 'the elements of the world.' The Jewish religion was perfect, in that it was suited to the situation and cir- cumstances of the people to whom it was given ; it was only imperfect, when compared with the more complete oeconomy of the Gospel." One cannot contemplate the ceremonial law without also reflecting on its gradual abolition ; " but it became criminal to observe it after the destruction of Jerusalem, because it [i. e. the Jewish law) could not then be legally observed, since the temple and altar had been destroyed # ." From the above collection of passages and of authori- ties, the following conclusions would seem to offer them- selves : — First, That, apart from specific appointment, all days being alike, the selection of any one, and its separation from the rest, can only be effected by a positive command ; and that, when so appointed, it can be abolished or altered only by the institutor, or by his authority. Secondly, That the Jewish Sabbath was divinely ap- pointed ; that its main purposes were not religious obser- vances, but civil and political arrangements, commanded to be observed by the Jews, and therefore binding upon them whilst their national polity existed and they continued to be recognised as the peculiar people of God. They have ceased to be that people ; their national existence is destroyed ; and the Sabbath, together with their polity, have, as Di- vine institutions for present observance, passed away. Thirdly, That whilst the command for the Jewish Sab- bath is one of the Ten Commandments, it forms no part * See Jennings's Jewish Antiquities, p. 439 ; and Brown's Jewish Antiquities, vol. ii. SABBATH, NOT A PART OF THE MORAL LAW. 185 of what is termed the moral law, but is mainly a civil and political, local and terminable institution ; and neither is there any provision for its being " everlasting" or " per- petual" in any other or more extended sense, than the Feast of Tabernacles, the rite of circumcision, or any other of the Mosaic institutions. Fourthly, That its observance was not and is not binding upon Gentiles as such ; and that any view which should so apply it, would alike affix in principle the practice of the rite of circumcision, together with the whole of the Jewish ritual, upon the Gentiles ; and further, that such Gentiles as desire to apply to the present times the Scriptural passages in relation to the Jewish Sabbath, should, with- out favour or affection, take the institution entire, and con- sistently adopt the whole of its provisions, alike as to the "very day" and the making it an absolute rest for them- selves, their cattle and their servants, and also as to the double sacrifice; for, as has been well observed, " one river is as good as another, one mountain as good as another, except when there is a Divine command ivhich specifies one, and then it is our part not to alter or to question a Divine command, but to consider whether it extends to us, and if it does, to obey it # ." Fifthly, That the conduct of Jesus and the declarations of Paul are directly averse to an especial reverence for the Sabbath, or any other ceremonial institution whatever, par- ticularly in connexion with the worship of God; for " be- lieve me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father The true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit (mind) and in truth f" That God "that made * Whately, pp. 9, 10. f John iv. 21—24. 186 SABBATH, NOT A PART OF THE MORAL LAW. the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things*." Sixthly, That neither Jesus nor the Apostles instituted another "Sabbath/' or a " Lord's Day," or a " First Day," or a "Christian Sabbath," or any other day or season of any description, for sabbatical or any religious ceremonial or other outward observance. Seventhly and finally, That there is no Scriptural war- rant for the theory of Professor Leef, — " That the ancient Sabbath had been sacred from the beginning, and had lost none of its primitive sanctions : That the Jewish Sabbath was an 'accommodation' to the times of the egress, of the ancient Sabbath : That the ancient Sabbath was resumed after the destruction of the Jewish polity ; and therefore 6 there could be no necessity for any new commandment in the New Testament, again to sanction it for the future observance of the Church.' " Why did not the Patriarchs observe the " ancient Sab- bath," and obey its "primitive sanctions"} Why had Moses to establish the Sabbath ? How can it be accounted for, on the part of the Messiah and of Paul, that in their marked disregard of the then existing Sabbath, they make no reference to the "ancient Sabbath," or of its having been "accommodated to the times of the egress," and resumed in their days with its "primitive sanctions."? And where, in the Scriptures, can the institution of the "ancient Sabbath" be found? ! ! ! * Acts xvii. 24, 25. f See Sermon on the Duty of observing the Christian Sabbath, by S. Lee, D.D., Regius Professor, Cambridge, 1833, p. 44. 187 CHAPTER III. THE LORD'S DAY, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH.* This portion of the controversy ought to lie within a very- small compass, as the question to be determined is simply one of fact; — Did Jesus, or did he not, — did the Apostles, or did they not, command the observance of a Sabbath or any other positive civil or religious ceremonial institution ? If they did, let the law and the testimony be produced, and let such law and such testimony be as distinct as the testimony of Moses in relation to the Jewish Sabbath, and also of the fourth commandment ; these being excel- lent models, — excellent, because for a positive institution essentially necessary. Any positive religious institution, and especially a Go- spel institution of the class in debate, must be required to be as incapable of being misunderstood, or of being per- verted, as those which appertained to the Hebrew con- stitution; indeed, from the novel circumstances in which the Gospel placed believers, and from the non-existence, in the new state of things, of a national distinctiveness, the necessity for precision as to the authority and all the details of observance would not be lessened, but, if pos- sible, increased. With these preliminary views, a glance may suffice at the case, as put forth by the advocates for the u modern Sabbath"; — bearing in mind that this in- quiry is not as to the expediency or the national benefits presumed to be derivable from a given portion of time being exempted from the usual occupations of society, but it is solely one of fact and of Scriptural authority. * See Alban Butler's Feasts and Fasts of the Catholic Church. 188 THE BISHOP OF LONDON. The terms "the Sabbath/' "Lord's Day/' "First Day/' and "Christian Sabbath/' are commonly, but most disinge- nuously, used as convertible ones in this controversy. The phrase Christian Sabbath, like that of " Paradisaical Sab- bath," is not Scriptural, the "Sabbath" of the Bible being exclusively the Jewish. Yet the unfairness or ignorance of some of the authorities in relation to the argument is not a little striking, who, whilst they do not pretend to contend for the present observance of the Jewish Sabbath, and also admit the scarcity of evidence as to the substi- tution of another, yet assume that the " Lord's Day" is binding, appropriating to its support the passages in the Old Testament which relate exclusively to the Jewish Sabbath and to the Jews whilst in Judea. Thus the Bishop of London* exhorts the citizens, to "sanctify the Lord's Day," to " keep holy a Sabbath, 3 ' to avoid the " profanation of the Christian Sabbath," " the sacred day which both God and man have set apart for religious worship and rest, and which is the grand bulwark of Chris- tianity." And this is done, with, it should seem, a know- ledge on the part of the bishop, that there is no Christian Sabbath; and that, whatever "man," or rather the bishop's Church, may have done, God hath not set it apart for "re- ligious worship and rest; " for in Dr. Blomfield's Appendix he himself states, that "the 'Lord's Day' is a more correct and more Christian appellation of the first day of the week than the ' Sabbath.' And so far were the early Christians from terming it the Sabbath, that many of them kept holy both theLord'sDay and the SabbathDay." And in the body of his pamphlet he adopts with marked approval the true and honest statement of Archbishop Sharp f: — "Though * A Letter on the present Neglect of the Lord's Day ; by C. J. Blom- field, D.D., Bishop of London. 1830. f Sermons, vol. iii. p. 218. DR. DWIGHT. LORD'S DAY. 189 there be no particular lata of God that obligeth us Chris- tians to observe one day in seven, more than one day in six or eighty though there be no particular law of God in this matter, yet, since the Christians from the begin- ning took up this practice in imitation of the Jews, and wherever Christianity hath obtained, it hath hound upon us by the laws both ecclesiastical and civil, to lay an obligation upon every man's conscience to observe this day*." Dr. Dwight, however, is even bolder than our metro- politan as it relates to Scriptural authority, making, as the following position will show, very short work of the kind of evidence which a sabbatical institution, designed for universal and perpetual observance, would, judging from the precision which was characteristic of the Jewish Sabbath, seem to demand: — i( The perpetual establishment of the Sabbath is evident from Revelations i. ]0.f" Will it be credited that the evidence which the Doctor appends to this assertion is this passage in the Revelations — ce I was in the spirit on the Lord's day"? Here there is nothing said of a Sabbath; nothing instituted', no com- mand of any kind for any object; no appointment of times, or seasons, or persons ; nothing that relates even to the "Lord's day" being an institution for any purpose whatever ; not an atom of evidence upon which to affix the establishment, perpetual or otherwise, of a Sabbath at all : — so that the zeal of the Transatlantic author has clearly outrun his discretion as well as his judgement and his evidence. The passage (the only one in the Bible in which "the Lord's day" occurs,) having been made of too much importance in this investigation, and by authorities of too high consideration, to be left without additional in- * See Bishop of London's Pamphlet, p. 7, and Appendix, f Dwight, p. 19. 190 IS not "the lord's day" the day of the lord? vestigation, it may be well to attend still more closely to this, the prominent text in the controversy; and the fact that such writers as Whately and Paley affix to it a chief position in support of "the Lord's Day" tends much to prove the scantiness of Scriptural evidence in support of even their chastened and moderated views. "At the time that St. John wrote the book of his Reve- lation, the first day of the week had obtained the name of the ( Lord's Day J c I was in the spirit,' says he, c on the Lord's Day/ which name, and St. John's use of it, suffi- ciently denote the appropriation of this day to the service of religion I make no doubt that by the Lord's Day was meant the first day of the week*." Could even Paley' s view be sustained, it would not prove that another Sabbath was instituted, or that a sub- stitute for the Sabbath, under the designation of "the Lord's Day," was divinely appointed. But to descend to the minor features in this case, how can the simple statement of John, that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day, denote any existing general appro- priation of the day upon which that occurred, amongst believers, to what Paley calls " the service of religion"? Or by what secret communication could Paley entertain 66 no doubt that by the Lord's day was meant the first day"? In explanation of the term "Lord's day," the following suggestions are offered, with the remark, that should they be deemed unsatisfactory, still the argument remains untouched, that the " Lord's day" was not a Di- vine institution ; neither was its observance commanded by Jesus or the Apostles, and consequently its observ- ance by believers cannot be binding in reference to such authority. The "Lord's day," — is it not equivalent to what in other * Paley, vol. ii. p. 268. SECOND COMING OF JESUS. 191 passages is called "the day of the Lord/' — that is, the day, or time, or period, when the Messiah, agreeably to the pro- phecies, shall again appear upon earth, in power and great glory? The words occur at the commencement of John's relation of the Revelation, which had been communicated by Jesus to him whilst John was in the Isle of Patmos, of the particulars of the future dealing of God with man ; and in which, occurrences at the distance of many ages are re- lated as then existing,— things that are not, being spoken of as things that are. Thus, his being " in the spirit on the Lord's day," — was it not his being made acquainted (i. e. being carried in his mind onward to the day of the Lord,) in relation to the " determinate counsel and fore- knowledge of God" — when the day or period (which John describes in the subsequent chapters,) would occur, when the faithful should live and reign with the Lord for a thousand years, and over whom the second death was to have no power? This view seems to receive support from the connecting verses. It was "the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and signified it by his angel [messenger] unto his servant John : who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw Behold, he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail be- cause of him*." And, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the lastf,"&c. Thus showing that the whole is connected with the second coming of Jesus, and that the "Lord's day" is "the day or period of the coming of the Lord," when he cometh * Rev. i. 1, 2,7. f Ibid. 10, 11. 192 with clouds and when every eye shall see him, — and not the particular day upon which John received the Reve- lation; although, had it so been, it could not have the most distant connexion with establishing any institution, whether for rest or for religious observance. In further confirmation of this view, see the following passages: — " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord*." " Ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your re- joicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus f." "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night J." The " First Day." — " I make no doubt,''' says Paley, " that by the Lord's Day was meant the first day of the week." And this opinion is a prevalent one amongst that class of theologians who correctly renounce all claims to the perpetuity or present applicability of the Jewish Sab- bath, but yet hold to the doctrine of the Scriptural recog- nition of a substitute for that Sabbath, in the first day of the week being set apart for religious worship. Upon the presumption that the preceding view of" the Lord's day" is the right one, Paley's assertion is wholly groundless; but even if otherwise, there is not the slightest evidence, from that solitary passage in the Revelations, to show that by "the Lord's day" John meant the first day of the week, or, the converse, that in either or in the whole of these passages in which the words "first day" occur, the several writers thereof meant the Lord's Day : and in order * Mai, iv. 5. f 2 Cor. i. 14. J 1 Thess. iv. 16. & v. 1, 2. JESUS TEACHING HIS DISCIPLES. "FIRST DAY." 193 fairly to estimate the bearing and the importance in the controversy of sustaining this position, the passages, to- gether with their connexion, are submitted. John relates that after the crucifixion of Jesus, Mary Magdalen on "the first day" of the week visited the sepul- chre, and found that the stone had been removed therefrom. Subsequently she saw and conversed with Jesus, who on the evening of the same day, "being the first day of the week, stood in the midst of his disciples, and said, Peace be unto you/' These disciples were Jews ; their Sabbath teas the seventh day, — did Jesus, in the above verse, sub- stitute the first day for the seventh day ? Is there in it any command for any day being set apart? Has the passage any one feature of being a positive institution ? Jesus also showed himself to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias, and was likewise seen of his disciples fox forty days after his resurrection, and before his ascension ; and whilst such a period would seem to be not unfitting for the resumption of old, or the appointment of new positive ceremonial institutions, if there were to be any, either then or in perpetuity, — we are left in total darkness in relation thereto; being informed by the historian, — not that Jesus commanded to be set apart "the First Day," or "the Lord's Day," or "the Christian Sabbath," or that "the primitive Sabbath" was to be resumed*, — but that for the forty days which he was with them he was teaching and " speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God": so that Paley, notwithstanding the importance to his case of his view being sustained, may well, in relation to this passage^ say that this appear- ance of Jesus, "for anything that appears in the ac- count, might, as to the day, have been accidental ; but," * See Professor Lee's Sermon. See also Alban Butler's Moveable Feasts and Fasts of the Catholic Church. o 194 THE FEASTS OF LOVE. continues he, u in the 26th verse of the same chapter (John xx.), we read, that after eight days, that is, on the first day of the week following again, the disciples were within ; which second meeting upon the same day of the week looks like an appointment and design to meet on that particular day *." Now what does the 26th verse contain ? cc And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them : then came Jesus, the doors be- ing shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you."!!! Does this verse strengthen the case ? Where, in the above, is the command ? Where the institution ? Where the recognition, on the part either of the Apostles or of Jesus, of any existing positive institution at all on the first day? Where the evidence upon which the Bishop of London (p. 96,) asserts that amongst the authorities a to keep holy a Sabbath or Lord's Day," is the "uniform practice of the Church of Christ, even from the death of its divine founder, and before his ascension into glory" ? Seeing that Jesus did not institute a new Sabbath, or resume any old institution, or order the sanctification of any other day for especial religious ceremonial observ- ance, the single passage in the Acts, and the correspond- ing one in the Corinthians, are the only passages, in ad- dition to the foregoing, which are adduced under this head ; and they next require examination. From the peculiar position in which the Apostolic Church was placed, it would appear that for a period the believers had all things in common ; and that, from being thus temporarily situated, it should seem there ori- ginated the Agapce, or feasts of love ; and that officers, i. e, deacons and deaconesses, superintended the manage- * Paley's Political and Moral Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 267- FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 195 ment thereof. Paul having sailed from Philippi, after the days of unleavened breads came unto them to Troas in five days, where he abode seven days; and " upon the Jirst day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, he preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight :" thus, availing himself of the occasion of their common meal, when they would be likely to be assembled in the greatest number, to impart to them instruction previously to his departure. To the Corinthians he advises the time for collecting for these objects, and thus states his reason for so directing the Church: "Concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the Jirst day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings ivhen I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem* '." Whilst the excellency, and appropriateness to the pe- culiar circumstances in which the believers were then placed, of these simple and benevolent arrangements is obvious, it is in vain to look to these passages — and no others are adduced — for any new positive ceremonial insti- tution appertaining to the Gospel ceconomy : there is here nothing in relation to the fast day which should mark it out, as instituted, from the third, or the eighth, or any other day of the week, there being no command, — no setting apart, — no evidence of its being an existing institution ; and it is difficult to account for the assertion of a writer so candid and so enlightened as Dr. Whately, in relation to these passages, that " there are indeed sufficiently * See 1 Cor. xvi. 1—3. o2 196 constantine's sunday. plain marks of the early Christians having observed the Lord's Day as a religious festival even from the very resurrection : John xx. 19, 26; Acts, xx. 7 ', 1 Cor. xvi. 2 ; Rev. i. 10.*" If by the early Christians the believers during the Apo- stolic days are meant, it is tolerably apparent that the "marks " exist not in the passages quoted, neither do they in any other portion of the New Testament: and Paley, whilst labouring to support the same hypothesis as the above, makes the following admission ; — " Nor did Christ or his Apostles deliver, that we know of, any command to their disciples of the discontinuance upon that day (Lord's Day) of the common offices of their professions f." But if by the designation iC early Christians " it is intended to refer us to those of the third or fourth centuries, when but little of the Gospel remained, then doubtless there are but too visible "marks" of the wide-spread corruption of Reve- lation in doctrine, as well as in discipline and in institu- tions ; and not only was the Lord's Day observed, but, by some, the Jewish Sabbath in addition thereto ; and eventually the edict of Constantine imparted to it an ad- mixture of heathenism, by establishing the weekly festival of Sunday as the municipal law of the Roman empire J. But if Dr. Whately has adventured upon an untenable position as to these " marks" of the early Christians, he has most unanswerably met the reasoners of Dr. D wight's class, and also of some of his own Church, touching such other portions of this controversy as go to maintain that we can apply certain portions of the Jewish Sabbath to ourselves ; that we can alter the day from the seventh to * p. 11. f Paley, ii. 268. % See Alban Butler's Observances of the Catholic Church ; Archbishop Synge's Divine Authority of Church Government ; Bishop White On the Sabbath ; and Bishop Pearson On the Creed. THE "LORD'S DAY " NOT INSTITUTED. 197 the first, or to any other day; and that we are to avail ourselves of tradition. "In saying/' saysDr. Whately, "that there is no mention of the Lord's Day in the Mosaic law, I mean that there is no mention of that specific festival which Christians ob- serve on theirs* day of the week; but there is not, as has sometimes been incautiously stated, any injunction to sanctify one day in seven-, it is not keeping holy some one day in every seven, but the seventh day. Now surely it is presumptuous to say that we are at liberty to alter a Di- vine command. One of the recorded offences of Jeroboam was his instituting a feast unto the Lord on the fifteenth of the tenth month, even the day that he had devised of his own heart." — It is not merely that the Apostles left no command perpetuating the observance of the Sabbath, and transferring the day from the seventh to the first, — since an express Divine command can be abrogated or altered only by the same power and by the same distinct revelation by which it was delivered, — but not only is there no such Apostolic injunction, — than which nothing less would be sufficient, — there is not even any tradition of such a change having been made; nay, more, it is even abun- dantly plain that they made no such change; and Heylyn, in the headings to one of his chapters, thus simply and truly places this portion of the investigation : — " 1 . That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lord's Day." "2. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviour Christ." "3. The Lord's Day not enjoined in the place thereof, either by Christ or his Apostles ; but instituted by the authority of the Church." "4. Our Saviour's resurrection on the * first day ' of 198 PALEY. DWIGHT. — WHATELY. the week, and his appearance on the same, make it not a Sabbath/' " 5. The first day of the week not made more than other (i. e. days) a Sabbath by Saint Peter, Saint Paul, or any other of the Apostles." "6, The preaching of St. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week, no argument that there that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises: collections* on the first day of the week conclude as little for that pur- posef." "The Lord's Day J was not advanced to that esteem which it now enjoys but leisurely and by degrees, partly by canons of particular councils, and partly by the de- cretals of several Popes and orders of several inferior prelates." Having concluded that which may be deemed the di- rect Scriptural evidence touching, 1 . The Paradisaical Sab- bath ; 2. The Jewish Sabbath ; 3. The Christian Sabbath, or Lord's Day, the points which remain have necessarily a very diminished degree of interest ; and, but for the au- thorities from whom they emanate, need hardly be em- bodied in an investigation, the essential features of which are as to the existence or non-existence of direct Scrip- tural facts and specific Divine authority. Paley§ asserts that the " conclusion from the whole inquiry is this : The assembling upon the first day of the week for the purposes of public worship and religious instruction is a law of Christianity of Divine appointment : the resting on that day from our employments longer than we are detained by attendance upon these assemblies is to Christians an ordinance of human institution, binding nevertheless * 1 Cor. xvi. 1. f See Heylyn, p. 400. X Heylyn. § vol. ii. p. 269- PALEY. — DWIGHT. — WHATELY. 199 upon the conscience of every individual of a country in which a weekly Sabbath is established." This pass- age is singularly inconsistent with the apparent design, and with the facts also of Paley's own Essay. If it is a law of Christianity and of Divine appointment too, the citing of that law would supersede the whole of Paley's reasoning as to the expediency of its religious and civil benefits. Where is the law ? where the Divine appointment of any Sabbath excepting the Jewish ? and that Paley has himself shown is not now binding either " as to the day, the du- ties, or the penalties." It would be extremely difficult to reconcile the above passage with the tenor of this author's Essay, but for his situation in the national church, and doubtless a desire to work out with Scriptural authority, if possible, the position that the institution of a weekly Sabbath is so connected with the functions of civil life, and requires so much of civil law in its regulation and support, that " it cannot perhaps properly be made the ordinance of any religion, till that religion he received as the religion of the State" ! It might be satisfactory to have Dr. D wight's view of this position; he, as an Ameri- can, not having the privilege of living in a country which, according to Paley, is fitted to have the Sabbath, as an or- dinance of religion, established therein, — the Doctor's na- tion not being blessed with a State religion. "But Chris- tian ministers have no right, even should they think it ex- pedient, to encourage or tacitly connive at misconceptions on the subject*." The Archbishop of Dublin takes another ground. He, in common with Paley, having demonstrated that the pass- age in Genesis does not contain any institution, and that for the present observance of the Jewish Sabbath there is no authority, yet for the purpose of sustaining the pre- * SeeWhately, p. 24. 200 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. sent Sabbath or "Lord's Day/' and as the "most effec- tual as well as the only justifiable means for accomplish- ing this object/' desires to place this duty on its "true foundation*"; this "true" foundation, as developed by the Archbishop, being " the power of the Church be- stowed by Christ himself, — which would alone be amply sufficient to sanction and enforce the observance, even in- dependent of Apostolic example and ancient usage." The law and the testimony are here, as in Paley's case, alike wanting. What is this power, which was thus indepen- dent of Apostolic example ? When was it bestowed, and upon what Church? The then Church (the Church of God), or any church or assembly in any subsequent age? And for what specific purposes ?-— -In another page the Arch- bishop solves some of the points of these inquiries. "The Apostles and their successors, even the Church, which he promised to be with e always, even unto the end of the world/ were endued with ample power to enact regulations, with a view to Christian edification ; and among the rest to set apart festival days, such as the Lord's Day, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Holy Thursday, &c.f" Was not this promise made to the Apostles, not to esta- blish ceremonial institutions, but to be with them until the end of the world, i. e. the end of the age, — that age, the then Apostolic age ? But where is the evidence that even to the Apostles the power was given of " setting apart "fes- tival days, as before cited ? Where is the instance of their having ever exercised that power ? And if given, were they to use it by the appointment, " for Christian edification," of " Good Friday, Holy Thursday/' &c, or were the Apostles to disregard, by the non-appointment of these festivals, the authority of their master; and that, too, when * See Advertisement to Dr. Whately's Pamphlet, f See Whately, pp.7, 21. THE NUMBER SEVEN. 201 they, the Apostles, in their peculiar office and duties, had no successors, not even " the Church of God"} But the Archbishop proceeds : " Now to such persons (i. e. strenuous advocates for the observance of the Lord's Day,) it is very useful to show that an institution, which they would be very unwilling to see deprived of all Divine sanction, can derive such sanction from no other source than from the power conferred by Christ on every Chris- tian Church*." ! If every "Christian" Church is thus pos- sessed of such power, can each mould and form it agree- ably to their own conceptions ? And if so, may we not have a different and an opposing version from the Ca- tholic, the Greek, and each of the numerous Protestant Churches ? — and all this variety as to an assumed sacred and positive institution, the observance of which is held to be binding upon all. In evidence of how differently the positive institutions which really had the "Divine sanction" were enacted, there cannot be a better illustra- tion than is furnished by a reference to the Jewish Sab- bath ; and in relation to which, its duties and its penalties could not admit of mistake or allow of variation. The late Christian Advocate of Cambridge (the Rev. T. S. Hughes), differing from both the preceding authors as to the Paradisaical Sabbath, but agreeing with them as to the non-existence of Divine authority for the pre- sent observance of the Jewish Sabbath, thus proposes his theory for the strict observance of a Sabbath Day ; adopting, in common with several high authorities, and in addition to his advocacy of the present and universal applicability of the passage in Genesis, the somewhat puerile and antiquated argument drawn from the pecu- liarity of the number seven. Thus, " Seven days were allowed to Noah for collecting the animals into his ark ; * Whately, p. 28. 202 THE RABBIES. THE PURITANS. seven days did that patriarch stay, and again other seven days he sent out the dove. Laban proposed to Jacob the service of seven years. Joseph mourned for his fa- ther seven days ; and a seven days' fast was observed by those who interred the bones of Saul. Seven bulls and seven rams were offered up as a burnt -offering ; seven altars built by Balaam ; and the number seven was held in equal reverence by the Pythagoreans and other philo- sophical sects *." And if this order of reasoning be le- gitimate to prove the existence of a Divine institution commanded to be of universal observance, the Reverend author, who is not singular f in this view, might have much extended this train of thought thus : — Philo so highly esteemed the number seven, that he considered there was not any man able sufficiently to extol it ! Hip- pocrates divided the life of man into seven ages, each age containing seven years ; the Pleiades consist of seven stars ; the moon quartereth every seventh day ; infants born in the seventh month may live; and some deem the seventh to be the critical day in most kinds of mala- dies ! ! ! — But these discoveries as to the virtues to be ex- tracted from the number seven, were much exceeded in nicety of discrimination and ceremonial allotment by cer- tain of the Rabbis as to the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday they pared their nails and whetted their knives, in readi- ness for the reception of the Sabbath. They taught that on the Sabbath a horse may have a bridle or a halter to lead, but not a saddle to load him ; a tailor must not wear his needle in his sleeve on the Sabbath Day ; the lame may use a staff, but the blind may not ; they must not rub their shoes on the ground, but against a wall ; and if a flea bite on the Sabbath, they might remove it, but not * See Hughes's Letter to Higgins, 1826, p. 12 — 14, f See King's Morsels of Criticism, 8vo edition. JAMES. THE " LORD'S DAY " IN LAW. 203 kill it, but a louse they might kill ; — together with sundry other marvellous niceties, being akin in principle to cer- tain of their Christian fellow-labourers, even after the Protestant Reformation, and in this country. Thus it was preached in Oxfordshire, that to do any servile work or business on the Lord's Day, was as great a sin as to kill a man or to commit adultery. In Norfolk it was taught, that to make a feast or dress a wedding-dinner on the Lord's Day, was as great a sin as for a father to take a knife and cut his child's throat. In Suffolk it was preached, that to ring more bells than one on the Lord's Day, was as great a sin as to commit murder ! ! ! These extremes, however, as to the observance of what was called " the New Lord's Day Sabbath," induced a species of reaction, which was led by the very remarkable Royal Declaration, in which King James enacts, " That for his good people's lawful recreations his pleasure was, that after the end of divine service they should not be dis- turbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreations, such as dancing for either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, nor any such harmless recreations, so as that the same be had in due time, without impedi- ment or let of divine service. Given at the Court at Greenwich, May 24, 1618." The unlawful games on Sun- days were bear- and bull-baiting, interludes, and bowling, by the meaner sort. The bishops, in the 12th of Elizabeth, provided a Bill for enforcing the observation of the " Lord's Day," and divers Bills were introduced into the legislature for the like purpose, especially one in the 27th of Elizabeth, en- titled, " A Bill for the better and more reverend obser- ving of the Sabbath Day:" it passed both houses, after much debating, but was denied the Royal assent. During the reigns of the Charleses several attempts of the same 204 THE HEATHENS.— CONSTANTINE. kind were made, the last of which, when about to re- ceive the Royal assent, was stolen and not afterwards re- covered. The Lord's Day in English law is a civil as well as a religious institution, the forfeitures and penalties not ex- tending to the prohibiting the dressing of meat in fami- lies, or dressing or selling of meat in inns, cook-shops, or victualling-houses; nor to the selling of milk before nine o'clock in the morning or after four in the afternoon, or the selling of mackerel before or after " divine service." And in the case of an information against a magistrate for refusing to proceed upon an information against a baker who baked puddings and pies on Sunday, the Court held that it was not an offence within the Act, it being a work of necessity, and that it was better that one baker and his men should stay at home, than many families and ser- vants # . And amongst the nice distinctions drawn as to the Lord's Day, the following case from our law books may serve as an example. The plaintiff lived a mile from the church ; and going thither with his lady in his coach upon a Sunday, he was robbed, and, upon in- stituting an action against the hundred, recovered, the statute extending only to the case of travelling. Chief- Justice Pratt held, that if they had been robbed not going to church, but to make visits, they might not so have re- covered. From Hesioc 1 we learn that the heathens celebrated the seventh day of the month; and that the Jirst of the month was consecrated to Apollo, the fourth to Mercury, the seventh again to Apollo, and the eighth to Theseus. And Constantine, in embodying and nationalizing the unholy work of infusing heathenism into the doctrines of Reve- * See "Lord's Day " in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, vol. ii. p. 414. DOMINUS SOL. 205 lation, not only established Sunday, but also enjoined equally a rest upon Friday, and commanded them to be alike honoured, the one being "the day of our Redeemer's resurrection, the other that of his passion." He also established a variety of other festivals, in relation to which Heylyn innocently remarks*: "Nor did this pious prince confirm and regulate the Lord's Day only, but unto him we are indebted for many of those other festivals ivhich have been since observed in the Church of God!" When the Church was at perfect peace, it pleased the emperor to signify to all his deputies and lieutenants in the Roman empire, that they should have a care to see those memorials of the martyrs duly honoured, and solem- nize times or festivals to be appointed to that end in the churches ; and such of them as had been most eminent, as the Apostles and Evangelists, " St. Peter, St. Thomas, St. Paul, &c, were universally received and celebrated even as now they are, (and) as they are now observed in the Church of England\" Sunday J was dedicated by the heathens to the honour of the sun ; and it has been suggested, as the sun was called Dominus Sol, that the day appointed thereto was in the same way entitled Dies Dominica. The Persians named their god, the sun, Mithra, the Lord Mithra; and Porphyry, in his prayer to the sun, calls him Dominies Sol-, and most of the ancient nations gave the sun the epithet Lord, or Master, or some title equivalent Jthereto, as Ku- rios in Greek, and Dominus in Latin §. But be the sug- gestions in this paragraph as they may, in concluding * See Selden, De Jure Naturali et Gentium, and also Thomas Aquinas. f Heylyn, p. 425. I The names assigned to the several days of the week may be traced to the earliest periods of Egyptian, Chaldean and Persian history. § See the Horce Sabbaticce, and also a note in the Modern Sabbath Examined, p. 108. See also Professor Lee's Sermon, p. 36. 206 THE WORKS OF GOD. this argument, it may be safely held from the facts de- tailed, and the conclusions arising therefrom, that there is no Scriptural authority whatever for the present ob- servance of the seventh, or the first, or any other day, as an institution set apart by Divine authority, and com- manded either for partial or universal observance; and that the Lord's Day, as it is called, is, in common with the minor Church festivals, mainly of heathen original, and without any religious claim upon the believers in Divine Revelation. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork there is no speech nor language, where their voice is NOT HEARD In THEM HATH HE SET A TABERNACLE FOR THE SUN*." * Psalm xix. 1, 3, 4. 20/ CHAPTER IV. A NATIONAL SABBATH. The expediency of a periodical national day of rest, esta- blished by the legislature, as a purely civil institution, is a subject of much interest, presenting as it does many weighty considerations to the political oeconomist as well as to the moralist and the purely religious inquirer : and these considerations press with increased force from the admission of the preceding facts, that there is no Scriptural command for the present sanctification of any day whatever. It would probably be difficult to select any large com- munity by whom a day of rest could be more needed than by the inhabitants of London, subject as all classes therein are to the constant wear and tear of body and of mind, induced by their local position, by the ever-active compe- tition arising out of the concentration of knowledge, of capital, of skill, and of the density and extent of the population, and also the pressure of the public burthens. But then, as has been well stated by Dr. Whately, although in support of a conclusion differing from that which is now submitted, "I am convinced that the most effectual, as well as the only justifiable means for accomplishing this object (the observance of a day of rest,) will be found in the placing this duty on its true foundation." And hence might we not look to the legislature for such regulations in relation to it, as should preserve us from a violation of our personal liberties, and protect us from the puritanical 208 A NATIONAL SABBATH. — EDGEWORTH's TOWN. ferocity of spiritual aggression, and the partial legislation of the gloomy, the ill-informed, the fanatical, or the pha- risaical ? An abstinence from our usual occupations being in- sured as a political institution, might not the mode of the observance be very safely left to the free choice of the people, when relieved from arbitrary and partial spiritual interdiction and denunciation, and false and impracticable views of religious obligation ? Must it necessarily follow, that on such a day recre- ation and pleasure and enjoyment should be injurious to the public weal, or calculated to lower the national tone of religious and moral feeling*? Would not religious communities assemble then, as now? Would the believers in the strict perpetuity of the Sabbath forgo their creed, or would they not continue to act and to believe in a similar manner to that in which Dr. Adam Clarke thus records his parents to have done? " Every Lord's Day was strictly sanctified: no manner of work was done in the family, and the children were taught from their earliest youth to sanctify the Sabbath. On that day she (Dr. Clarke's mother, a presbyterian,) took the opportunity to catechize and instruct her children, * In the year 1829 the author passed through Edgewbrth's Town, and was informed by Mr. Edgeworth, that as a means of improving the habits, and of contributing towards the innocent enjoyment of the people, he had appointed certain of the boys in his public school to entertain trie people with musical performances on the Sundays, after the hours of service at the Catholic chapel : the result, in weaning the people from the whiskey- shops, (with which even Edge worth's Town abounds,) was highly satisfactory ; but cant and mistaken views of re- ligious obligation interfered, and induced Mr. Edgeworth to forgo his enlightened and rational, and comparatively moral, arrangements for the benefit of his poorer countrymen : the music ceased, and the saints and the whiskey-shops again triumphed ! MISS MARTINEAU. 209 would read a chapter, sing a portion of a psalm, and then go to prayer*/' And would not a more enlightened class of believers still avail themselves of such a day of rest, somewhat in accordance with the interesting picture thus drawn, by an admirable female writer of the present day, of a re- ligious emigrant family buried in the American forests, yet continuing to cultivate, under the direction of Dr. Sneyd, all their former scientific and moral and religious tastes f? "But do you not find it pleasanter to go to worship, as we went this morning, through green pas- tures, and by still waters, where human industry made its appeal to us in eloquent silence, and men's dwellings bore entire the aspect of sabbath repose, than to pass through paved streets with a horizon of brick walls, and tokens on every side not only of week-day labour, but of struggles for subsistence and subservience for bread ? There may be more immediate pleasure in one sabbath walk than another, Arthur, but they yield perhaps equally the aliment of piety. Whatever indicates the condition of man, points out not only the species of duty owing to man, but the species of homage due to God, — the charac- ter of the petitions appropriate to the season. All the methods of going to worship may serve the purpose of preparation for the sanctuary. The nobleman may lean back in his carriage to meditate; the priest may stalk along in reverie, unconscious of all around him ; the citi- zen father may look with pride on the train of little ones * Life of Adam Clarice, LL.D., vol. i. 1833. \ Illustrations of Political Economy, No. XXITl., "Briery Creek," by Harriet Martineau. The character of Dr. Sneyd has apparently been sketched from the pursuits, condition and views of the late Dr. Priestley whilst banished to America by the ignorance and ferocity of his countrymen, acting under and excited by a barbarous and wicked Tory Government. P 210 THE BRITISH MUSEUM. with whom he may spend the leisure of this day; and the observing philanthropist may go forth early and see a thousand instances by the way; and all may alike, enter the church door with raised and softened hearts, .... and all listen with equal faith to the promise of peace on earth and good will to men Yes, and the observer not the least, if he observe for holy purposes •" Might not literary and scientific societies be greatly ex- tended, and amongst all classes, down to the very poorest ; and, by their members assembling on this day, with a con- sciousness that in so doing they were violating neither a human nor a divine law, greatly tend to increase the know- ledge, the morality, and the consequent civilization and religion and happiness of the people ? And why should not the British Museum, the National Gallery (when we have one), and other public institutions, be open to the people on Sundays ? And would not such cultivation of the pub- lic mind tend to wean one class from social pursuits of an injurious tendency, and others from secluded and profit- less self-gratification ? Would not such a day of rest tend to relieve religion from the imputations which the conduct of certain of its privileged professors in high places tends to affix to it, by their busy interference with the poor man's Sunday oc- cupations'* (often of necessity and not of choice,) and amusements, and their non-interference with the Sunday pursuits, the entertainments, and the pleasures of the rich and powerful f? • " I must appear important, big as a country pedagogue ; .... I'll swell like a shirt bleaching in a high wind, and look burly as a Sun- day beadle, when he has kicked down the unhallowed stall of a profane old apple woman." — Tobin's Honeymoon, Act III. f The present Bishop of London recently interdicted the perform- ance of "sacred music" in public rooms on a Sunday evening. Does Dr. Blomfield ever accept an invitation to Windsor on Sundays? or has WINDSOR ON SUNDAYS. — SCOTCH SANCTITY. 211 Can it be beneficial to society, or tend to check the perpetration of crime, that the walls of our prison-cells should be pasted over with absurd tales, and statements of the conversions of criminals, who are made to centre the cause of all their evil propensities, and wicked habits, and vile associations, in the fact of their having been first tempted of the devil to become Sabbath-breakers ? Can the present unsettled manner of estimating Sun- day, and of the various modes of observing it, be conducive to the advancement of religion or the benefit of society ? for, not to dwell upon the opposing practices amongst the European continental nations, and those of the Greek, and Catholic, and Protestant communities, the test of sound- ness in the Sabbatical faith is very variable, even under the same national government and in nearly the same district of country. Thus in some of the southern coun- ties of Ireland the song and the dance are Sunday after- noon occupations, whilst amongst certain of the northern inhabitants of the same island an almost pharisaical at- tention to Sunday exists. Throughout Scotland, public conveyances proceed only on the six "lawful days," — he suggested to His Majesty, as the head of the Church, the profanation of reviewing the troops on Sunday mornings, and of allowing the mili- tary bands on the terrace and in the gardens to play on Sunday even- ings ? although such occupations doubtless contribute towards the en- joyment of the public, and evince the liberal and kindly feelings of the King. A party, upon being conducted on a Sunday through the interior of Windsor Castle, remarked to the attendant, whilst looking at the kitchen, upon the great activity then pervading that interesting depart- ment of the royal residence ; the reply was, " Our very busiest day, Sir, is Sunday." What is Dr. Blomfield's opinion, in this case, of the Jewish command, " The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any worJc, .... nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle ; . . . . that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou."} p2 212 AMERICAN SANCTITY. with, however, such exceptions as the following. Stages do not travel on Sunday, but the mail does. The man in middling circumstances cannot hire a pleasure horse on Sunday, but the man of fortune travelling in his own car- riage may do so. The Scotch smacks and steam-boats do not leave Leith for London on Sunday, but they do leave London for Leith on that day. The Scotch shop- keepers on their route to the metropolis are said to have two consciences ; they will not proceed on their journey on Sunday whilst in Scotland, but when across the border their scruples so far give way as to allow them readily to avail themselves of the facilities of English travelling; and upon the occasion of the visit of George IV. to Edin- burgh, all the public stages, and every variety of vehicle, plied for hire on Sunday ! ! ! In the United States also there are similar inconsis- tencies. Thus, whilst at Boston, the author was pro- ceeding on a Sunday to the village of Quincy, and his conductor had to exercise all his ingenuity and his local knowledge to be enabled to effect, through the back lanes and by-paths, an escape out of the town of Boston, lest he should have been even seen, "upon the Sabbath Day," other than on his way to church. At New York, although a city not deemed to be righteous overmuch, chains are placed across all the main thoroughfares ; whilst, under the same Government, at New Orleans, the stores, mar- kets, theatres, gambling-houses, and ball-rooms are open on Sunday ; and the parties reputed the most ready to fall into the extremes of this southern capital, are said to be the puritanical emigrants from New England ! Can these things accord with the great truths of Reve- lation, or be conducive to a healthy state of the public morals ? Their results, indeed, may be successful in manu- facturing hypocrites, but must be inimical to the fostering ROBINSON OF CAMBRIDGE. 213 of religious principle or the cultivating mental integrity. And as to the pharisaical and aristocratical tenet, that the "lower orders" may abuse the freedom which an en- tire day in seven would confer upon them, it may be re- plied, that they have that day now ; that, despite of the presumed sanctity of the day, they are still accused of its violation 5 and also that, generally, holy days are misused by them. Robinson of Cambridge has, however, quaintly but well remarked, "As to holydays, let the poor take as many as they can afford and their masters can spare ; . . . . far be it from us to wish to abridge their liberty, or di- minish their little enjoyment of life ; but let us not make religion of their gambols, nor enrol their pastimes among the laws of Jesus Christ*." And to all classes, whether in relation to an observance of the Sabbath, or any other religious festival, the sentiments in another work of the same author may not be unprofitably studied ; for, " let the rites of Judaism be what they may, Christians are not bound to perform them because they were instituted by Moses ; . . . . but it must be proved that Jesus, his suc- cessor and a legislator like him, hath re-ordained them. .... Jewish ceremonies are to be considered now only as Pagan rites are considered, namely, histories of past ages, but not as laius of the present timesf." And being con- vinced that Jesus has not re-ordained either these or any other ceremonial observances, we may finish this investi- gation, and contemplate man thus described by the phi- losopher, and the duties of man thus proclaimed by the prophet : — " The beauty and permanency of the heavens, and the principle of conservation belonging to the system of the universe, the works of the eternal and divine Architect, * History and Mystery of Good Friday, by Robert Robinson, p. 25. f Robinson's History of Baptism, (American edition,) p. 31. 214 THE PROPHET MICAH. were finely opposed to the perishing and degraded works of man" (?. e, the ruins at Rome,) "in his most active and powerful state ; and at this moment so humble appeared to me the condition of the most exalted beings belong- ing to the earth, so feeble their combinations, so minute the point of space and so limited the period of time in which they act, that I could hardly avoid comparing the generations of man, and the effects of his genius and power, to the swarms of luceoli or fire-flies which were dancing around me, and that appeared flitting and spark- ling amidst the gloom and darkness of the ruins, but which were no longer visible when they rose above the horizon, their feeble light being utterly obscured in the brightness of the moonbeams in the heavens *." "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? . . . . he hath showed thee, o man, what is good; and what doth the lord require op thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly WITH THY GoDf?" * Sir Humphry Davy's Consolations in Travel, 1830, p. 13. f Micah vi. 7, 8. THE END, PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces: Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: March 2005 PreservationTechnologiei A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIO 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 tf(S