THE SABBATH. THE' SABBATH VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OP REASON, REVELATION, AND HISTORY, WITH SKETCHES OF ITS LITERATURE. BY THE REV. JAMES GILFILLAN, STIRLING, SCOTLAND. WE ABE TO ACCOUNT THE SANCTIFICATION OF ONE DAY IN SEVEN A DUTY WHICS GOD’S IMMUTABLE LAW DOTH EXACT FOE EVER.— HOOKES. A M E R IC A N T R A C T SOC IE TY, 150 N A SSA U -S T R E E T , NEW YORK: AND THE • N E W YORK S A B B A T H COMMITTEE, 5 B I B L E H O U S E , A S T O R P L A C E . T he stereotype plates of this volume were gener­ ously presented to the New York Sabbath Committee, by J ohn H enderson, Esq., of Glasgow, Scotland. In issuing it without revision, neither that Committee nor the Publishing Committee assume the responsibility of any sentiment that may have the aspect of denomi­ national controversy. “ The first creature of God in the works of the days was the light of the sense, the last was the light of reason, and his Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his Spirit.” L o r d B a c o s. P R E F A C E . The author of the following work accounts it his happiness to have been connected from his earliest days with a class, of whom the sacred observance of the Lord’s Day has been a prominent distinction. That there have been among them no insincere characters, presenting a distorted image of their creed, it would be too much to affirm; but sure he is, thflt both ministers and private individuals, with whom, from his circumstances, he has been brought into intercourse, have been, for the most part, up­ right, holy, kind-hearted, cheerful Christians, with whom, he had reason to believe, it would be good for him to live and die. Of persons in sacred office, there rise to his view, his relative, Mr. Barlas, Crieff ; Dr. Pringle and Mr. Black, Perth ; Mr. Jameson, Methven; Mr. Beath, Pitcairn Green; Dr. Mitchell, Anderston, afterwards of Glasgow ; Dr. Ferrier, Paisley ; Dr. Jamieson and Professor Paxton, Edinburgh ; Mr. Culbertson, Leith. Others, who occupied a less public station, he must not name; but he sees them attending to the claims of their fellow-creatures equally as to their own affairs— visiting the poor and suffering— sitting by their bed-sides with the impression that a dying immortal is near, and with the tear and the tone of sympathy— tending the steps of the aged and the neglected— showing in their countenances PREFACE. ri the serenity and benevolence which they have catched from the face of the Saviour— their very steps indicating that they “ Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon.” His education among such persons, with the circumstance that his father had published an “ Essay” on the subject, gave him an early interest in the Sabbath. The work, which is the result, has for years employed those moments which he could spare from the duties of a laborious profession. His own collection of books that treated of the institution, though ultimately of some extent, being insufficient for his purpose, he has had to draw upon various public libraries. For securing him access to their trea­ sures, or for otherwise aiding his researches, he is under great obligations to Professors Pillans, Edinburgh, and Fleming, Glas­ gow ; Messrs. George Offor, and 'William H. Black, London; Mr. Haig, Dublin; and the Rev. Alex. B. Grosart, Kinross : and to the librarians, the Rev. A. L. Simpson, Messrs. Small, Laing, Halkett (Edinburgh), Jones (Glasgow), and Christie (Innerpeffray), he is indebted for manifold acts of attention and kindness.1 He may be allowed to express special gratitude for the encouraging inter­ est shown, and the various assistance rendered, in connexion with i Of public libraries, the writer found those of the British Museum and the Edin­ burgh University to be the richest in Sabbatic literature. In the Advocates’ Library, and that of the University of Glasgow, he met with works on the subject which he had not discovered anywhere else in Scotland. The library of the United Presbyterian Church is peculiarly valuable in the department of Theology, which it owes in no small measure to the portion of it that belonged to the learned Robertson of Kilmapioek, and has a select number of volumes on the Sabbath. The most extensive and valuable •ollection of books and pamphlets relative to the institution that he has had the op­ portunity of seeing was that of ^ r. W. H. Black, minister of a Sabbatarian Church, London, and an accomplished scholar. He regretted that with the most liberal per­ mission to make use of it on the spot, the rule of the Library, which precluded the removal of any book from the premises, and his limited time, put it out of his power to derive much benefit from its stores. PREFACE. rii his undertaking, by the late Professor More, the Rev. Dr. Somer­ ville, John Henderson, Esq. of Park, and his friends, the Rev. James Young, and Mr. John Taylor, Edinburgh. He would also coidially acknowledge the approbation which his labours have met with in not a few public journals. v The alterations which the work has undergone in this second edition have, it is believed, improved, without substantially chang­ ing its character. This he can affirm with some confidence as far as respects the General Index, prepared by the practised pen of the Rev. James Anderson, author of the “ Ladies of the Cove­ nant,” and of other kindred and approved publications. With these remarks, he again commits his volume, such as it is, to the candid consideration of his readers, and to Him, who, he trusts, will mercifully accept and bless the offering. Stirling, A p ril 1 7 ,1$6H. CON TEN TS, SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. FAGS P agans a g a in s t J ews—Both against Christians, . . 2 H olidays, . . . . . . . 13 E ngland, . . » • • • 32 T he Netherlands, , • « • • • 90 E ngland, . . • • • • • H8 U nited States, . . • • • • . 1 4 9 Scotland, . . . . . . 157 PROOFS, FROM REASON AND EXPERIENCE, OF THE EXCEL­ LENCE AND DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER L P hysical and I ntellectual Adaptations of the Sabbath, . 173 CHAPTER IL Moral and R eligious I nfluence of the Sabbath, . . 194 CHAPTER III. E conomy op a W eekly H oly D ay, . . . . 209 1 * CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. I nfluence of the Sabbath on the Respectability and H appi­ ness of I ndividuals, . . . . . . CHAPTER V. Domestic Benefits of the Sabbath, . . . . CHAPTER VI. A dvantages of the Sabbath to Nations, CHAPTER VTL Application of P keceding P rinciples and F acts* in P roof of the Divine Origin of the Saebath, TESTIMONY OF REVELATION TO A SACRED AND PERPETUAL SA B B A ,. CHAPTER L D ivine I nstitution of the Sabbath at the Creation, and its Observance by the P atriarchs, . . . . CHAPTER H. T he Sabbath promulgated from Sinai as one of the Command­ ments of the Moral L aw, . . . . . CHAPTER IH. T he Sabbath, under a change of D ay,—a Christian Ordin­ ance and L aw, . . . . . . CHAPTER IV. D uties of the Sabbath, . . . . . PAOS 217 228 242 267 274 285 298 317 , CHAPTER V. pads Duties of the Sabbath, . . . 327 CHAPTER VI. Divine E stimate of the I mportance of the Sabbath, . . 337 CHAPTER TIL The Sabbatism of H eaven, . . . . . 349 CONTENTS. Xi EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY FOR A WEEKLY DAY OF REST AND WORSHIP. Traces of Septenary I nstitutions among P agan Nations, . 359 The Sabbath or Lord’s D ay in the F irst Three Centuries of Christianity, . . . . . . . 368 The Sabbath in Centuries 1V.-XV., . . . . 381 The Sabbath at the R eformation, . . . . 405 T he Sabbath after the R eformation, . . . . 424 THE SABBATH DEFENDED AGAINST OPPOSING ARGU­ MENTS, THEORIES, AND SCHEMES. CHAPTER I. Alleged Anti-Sabbatism of the R eformers, . . . 406 CHAPTER II. Milton and other E minent Men, . . . . 470 CHAPTER HI. T heories tried by the P rinciples of the D ivine Government, 479 X x ii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE T heories tried b y their Tendencies and Results, . . 491 CHAPTER V. T h e o r ie s a n d A r g u m e n t s t r ie d b y t h e D o c t r in e a n d Law o f R evelation, . . . . . . . 514 CHAPTER VI. T heories and A rguments tried by the Doctrine and L aw of R evelation, . . . . . . . 527 CHAPTER VIL T heories tried by D ivine Predictions, . . . 546 THE CLAIMS OF THE SABBATH PRACTICALLY ENFORCED. D esecration of the S abbath, . . . . . 556 Sabbath Desecration at H ome, . . . “ . . 558 Sabbath Desecration Abroad, . . . . . 563 Causes of Sabbath D esecration, . . . . 568 R emedies for Sabbath Desecration, . . . . 580 P rogress and P rospects of our Cause, . . . . 5 9 2 R elation of the I nstitution to the present interests of all Classes, . . . . . . . 605 I ts m o r e Momentous Connexion with a F uture State, 608 INDICES. General I ndex, . . . . . . . 611 Index of Texts, . . . . . . 634 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. The Sabbath dates, as we believe, from the creation of the world. Traces of it have been found among pagan nations, ancient and modern. It has run parallel in Judea with the greater part of Jewish history. It has been identified for eigh­ teen centuries with the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of Christen­ dom. The object of ardent regard, and of intense dislike, it has been the occasion of earnest controversy and of multiplied writings. Although it has not received the attention, still less the full eluci­ dation, which its character, antiquity, and value might prepare us to expect, it could not fail long ere this time to furnish materials for a chapter in the polemics, and another in the literature of religion. And yet these chapters, so far as we know, remain unwritten. A comprehensive view, however, of the manner in which so important a department of knowledge has been culti­ vated, and some account of the labourers, while fitted as matters of general intelligence to gratify and instruct, seem to be necessary for guiding further research, and for shedding a direct light on the subject of inquiry, » As there is little hope that we shall be favoured in this, as in various other branches of study, with a reproduction of the abler treatises of former days, might not the authors of the new works, which new times and circumstances demand, supply in some degree the want, and enhance the value, 1 After these sketches were written, and several sheets printed, the author was happy to meet with the excellent He Histoire of Koelman, and, after the whole had passed from the press, with the annotated Aphorism of C. Vitringa, and the Sunday of Dr. Hessey. These works supply in part what he here desiderates. A SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES. of their own volumes, by presenting a resume at least of previous theories and arguments 1 „ If the following sketches should prove that it is easier to point out than to supply a desideratum, it will be to the writer a satis­ fying result of considerable labour expended on an attempt made in a somewhat untrodden walk and with limited space, if by any impulse imparted to more successful exertion, or by the informa­ tion brought together, a service shall be rendered to the cause which it is the object of this volume to illustrate and recommend ___the cause, he believes, of Divine law, and of human happiness. During the period comprehended in the sacred records of the Old Testament, though Sabbatic privileges were in repeated in­ stances despised, no professed friend of the true religion is found to dispute the Divine appointment or sacred character of the seventh-day’s services and rest. A similar unanimity prevailed for many centuries among Christians with regard to the claims of the Lord’s day. But there wanted not differences between the Jews and the heathen; and between the Christians and both. And it is necessary to pass these differences under a brief review, before we proceed to describe the strifes by which the Church itself came to be agitated. PAGANS AGAINST JEWS—BOTH AGAINST CHRISTIANS. While kindred observances are discovered in pagan countries from the remotest times, it appears from a few scattered notices in history, that the time Sabbath, as observed by the patriarchs ' and the Jews, was the object of bitter and even violent hostility to those heathen men who were brought into intercourse with its friends. In Cain and Pharaoh, we see types— the one, of a class who deliberately abandon scenes and seasons of worship uncon­ genial to their hearts, and so leave to their descendants a legacy of atheism and moral death ; the other, of persons in power who refuse to their subjects or servants the periodical respite from labour demanded by the necessities of body and soul. The anti- Sabbatic spirit comes out subsequently in the conduct of the Baby­ lonian “ adversaries of Jerusalem,” who not only “ mocked at her JEWS AND PAGANS. 3 Sabbaths,” but compelled her people to labour without any rest j1 and in the cruel edict of Antiochus Epiphanes, who proclaimed the keeping of their Sabbath, and every observance of their law by the Jews, to be a capital offence.2 A similar feeling is betrayed in another form by the Greek and Roman writers at various times — Democritus, Cicero, Strabo, and Ovid, Seneca, Juvenal, Persius, Tacitus, Plutarch, and Appian, who ridicule or denounce the Jew­ ish religion— some of them singling out for special derision or reprehension its weekly and other holy days. Ovid brands these as foreign Sabbaths, unsuited for business, and fit to be ranked with seasons of noted calamity and gloom :— “ Quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis Culta Palsestino septima festa Syro.” 3 “ Nec pluvias rites : nee te peregrina morentur Sabbata : nec damnis Allia nota suis.” 4 According to Augustine, Seneca, in censuring the rites of Judaism, charges its Sabbaths in particular with causing the neglect and obstruction of urgent affairs, and dooming to idleness and waste the seventh part of life.5 Juvenal repeats the latter charge, when, lampooning Roman perverts to Judaism, he says,— “ By them no cooling spring was ever shown, Save to the thirsty circumcised alone ! Why? but each seventh day their bigot sires Rescind from all that social life requires.” ® 0 He is followed by Tacitus, who affirms that the Jews so enjoyed the repose from labour which every seventh day afforded, as to be led by the blandishments of idleness to give up every seventh year also to sluggish inaction.7 Persius sneers at the voiceless prayers, and the Sabbaths of the circumcised :— “ Thou mutterest prayers—nor dost refuse The fasts and Sabbaths of the curtailed Jews.”8 1 Lam. L 7; v. 5. 2 Jahn’s Jewish Antiq., p. 108, 3 Art. Am. i. 415, 416. * Remed. Am. 219, 220. 6 Be Civit. Dei, lib. vi. c. 11. 6 “ Qusesitum ad 1 jntem,” etc.—Juv. Sat. xiv. 105. 7 “ Septimo quoque die ot.ium plaeuisse,” etc.— Hisi., lib v. eec. 5. 8 “ Labra moves tacitus recutitaque Sabbata panes.”—Pers. Sat. v. 184. 4 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Whence, it may be asked, this antipathy to Jewish sacred days 1 These writers were familiar with seasons of rest and worship as observed by their own countrymen in a manner not unlike the practice of the Jews. Plato, in a remarkable passage, extols festivals as the gift of the gods for the relief of toil-doomed man.1 Cicero, though he stigmatizes the religion of the Jews as abhorrent from the ancestral ordinances of Rome, commends festival days.1 2 And Seneca, while he sees nothing but damage and loss of time in the Sabbaths of Moses, applauds the holidays of heathendom as the wise appointments of legislators, for the necessary attemper­ ing of human labour.3 The reason, therefore, of dislike to the former must be sought for in prejudice, not in calm consideration and rational conviction. The sanctity and unworldliness which are repulsive to human depravity now, were equally obnoxious then. It is true that some of the heathen, surmounting this obstacle, embraced Judaism,4 * 6 and that many of the Jews had spread themselves over the Empire, and had been admitted to the privileges of citizenship. To this latter fact the words of Horace apply:— “ ‘ This is the Jews’.grand feast; and, I suspect, Y ou’d hardly like to spurn that holy sect.’ ‘ Nay, for such scrupulous whims I feel not any.’ * Well, hut I do; and, like the vulgar many, Am rather tender in such points as these.’ ” • But the prevalence of the system and its friends only served to exasperate the aversion of others into a bitterness of feeling not at all favourable to the discoveries or utterances of truth. Under this feeling Seneca represents the hateful Jews as able by their numbers and power to rule their masters ; and Juvenal complains : “ There be, who, bred in Sabbath-fearing lore, The vague divinity of clouds adore ; Who, like their sires, their skin to priests resign, And hate like human flesh the flesh of swine. 1 Geol 5k ohcrelpavres—De Leg. lib. ii. a Be Leg. lib. ii. sec. 19. Orat. pro. Flac. ® Be Tranq. Anim. c. 15. * Josephus not only mentions Fulvia, a woman of rank in Rome, as having been converted to the Jewish religion, but informs us that in the reign of Nero all the married women in Damascus were addicted to that religion. 6 “ Hodie tricesima Sabbata,” etc—Sot. 9 of B. 1. JEWS AND PAGANS. 5 The laws of Rome those blinded bigots slight, In superstitious dread of Jewish rite; To Moses and his mystic volume true, They set no traveller right, except a Jew.” 1 The translator, Badham, remarking on the ignorance betrayed by Juvenal in these lines, adds :— “ Had Providence permitted to him the use of that volume of their (the Jews’) great lawgiver, how much would he have been astonished at the benevolence and mercy which it inculcates ! and how little would he have felt dis­ posed to boast of the light which the world had received from ‘ Athens or from Rome.’ ” But that volume in Greek was accessible to Juvenal, and both he and Tacitus had abundant means of avoiding their ignorant misrepresentations of the Jewish religion. The latter has in one instance done it justice, and let his beautiful words be a reply to the poet’s fancy of “ cloud- worship,” though, as the translator observes, if he gave them no credit for a more pure abstract notion of the Deity, a cloud was as good as a stone : “ The Jews acknowledge one God only, and him they see in the mind’s eye, and him they adore in contem­ plation, condemning as impious idolaters all who with perishable materials wrought into the human form, attempt to give a repre­ sentation of the Deity. The God of the Jews is the great govern­ ing mind that directs and guides the whole frame of nature, eter­ nal, infinite, and neither capable of change, nor subject to decay.” 2 In defending their religion and its institutions, the Jews had recourse to various means according to circumstances. Sometimes, as under Ahasuerus, and in the Maccabaean wars, they successfully stood for their lives and for their faith. It frequently happened, that in consequence of their oppressed condition, they could vin­ dicate their cause only by heroic suffering on its account. Of this means of defence we have some noble instances in the Baby­ lonian captivity.— (Dan. ii. vi.) We cannot accord the same unmixed feeling of admiration to the conduct of those Jews3 in later times, who, to the number of a thousand, allowed themselves to be massacred rather than resist their assailants on the day of holy rest, or those twelve thousand who perished, and their priests } “ Quiclam sortiti metuentem Sabbata patrem,” etc.—Juv. Sat. xiv. 97. ' s Hist. Book v. sec. 5. 3 Joseph. Antiq. xii. vi. 2 ; Wars, i. vii. 5, 6 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices, because, though they had come to believe it right to withstand their enemies, they still held it unlawful to adopt offensive measures on that day. At other times we find them resorting to the arts of diplomacy, and the aid of foreign power. They pleaded effectually, for example, with Agrippa and Augustus. The latter, in answer to their appeal, issued, and inscribed on a pillar in the temple of Caesar, an order in their favour, commanding, with other things, that they should not be obliged to go before any judge on the Sab­ bath-day, or on the day of preparation for it, after the ninth hour.1 Nor was the pen wanting. After the cessation of the prophetic spirit with Malachi, the books called the Apocrypha were written, it is supposed, by individuals of the Jewish people belonging mostly to Alexandria. These books, though nowhere pretending, and, in some instances, as they well might, even disavowing any claim to inspiration, contain, amidst flagrant errors and imperfec­ tions, many wise maxims, with our most authentic information respecting the history, doctrines, and practice of the divinely selected nation, and of the Church of God, during the period of above four hundred years.1 2 Re-echoing Scripture facts relative to the Sabbath, they describe the care, amounting to austerity, with which in the days of the Maccabees that lioly institution was observed. To two other writers, who amongst various services to Judaism, stood forward in the character of its apologists, we owe answers to anti-Sabbatic calumnies, as well as warm eulogiums on the septenary rest. One of them was the learned and eloquent Philo-Judaeus3 The other was the well-known Josephus,4 whose works, prized alike by the intelligent many, and the learned few, have shed much light, including a few rays on our subject, over 1 Joseph. Antiq. xri. ii. 3 ; xvi. vi. 1, etc. 2 Dr. Pye Smith’s First Lines of Christ. Tlieol. p. 472. s Philo represents himself as advanced in life in a.d. 40. His language on certain subjects is so strikingly coincident with the phraseology of the Apostles John and Paul, as to be regarded by an able writer (Dr. J. Jones) as a proof of his conversion to Christianity. 4 He was born about a.d. 37, but belongs in the character of historian to the close of the first century. Sad it is, that living when the Gospel had begun to pour its efful­ gence on the world, he refused its illumination. For, that Josephus was a Christian, as the writer already referred to has laboured to show, is disproved by stubborn facts. the Sacred Scriptures, and the history and character of his nation. Any defence of Judaism, however, at the time when these able men wrote, was encumbered with serious disadvantages. The friends of the system were far from being happy illustrations of its moral tendency, and the system itself had fallen under the description : “ In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”— (Heb. viii. 13.) The Sabbatic controversy now passes into two— one between Jews and Christians; the other between Christians and the adherents of Paganism. In each of these new conflicts, as in the old, one of the parties is subjected for a time to perse­ cution for its opinions. A new power, it is felt, has come into the field. Its wider and more rapid ascendency produces a more determined resistance than had been offered to the less aggressive and energetic system which it has succeeded. Christi­ anity is assailed with a proportionate severity by the heathen. The Jews also turn persecutors, and, like Herod and Pilate, they and the Pagaus, who before were at enmity between themselves, are made friends together. From the days of the apostles down­ wards for many years, the followers of Christ had no enemies more fierce and unrelenting than that people, who cursed them in the synagogue, sent out emissaries into all countries to calumniate their Master and them, and were abettors, wherever they could, of the martyrdom of men, such as Polycarp, of whom the world was not worthy. Among the reasons of this deadly enmity was the change of the Sabbatic day. The Romans, though they had' no objection on this score, punished the Christians for the faith-; ful observance of their day of rest, one of the testing questions! put to the martyrs being, Dominicum servasti 1— Have you kept the Lord’s day l1 Such, however, was the success of truth, and of the example of these good men, that the Lord’s day soon ; passed from being an object of opprobrium into a law of a great empire. And Julian himself was so impressed with the power of its arrangement of rest and instruction as to contemplate the adop­ tion of a similar provision for reviving and propagating heathen error. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 7 * Baron. An. Eccles. a.d. 303. Num. 35, etc. 8 sk e t c h e s op sa b b a t ic c o n t r o v e r sie s. But the opposition of the Jews and Pagans to Christianity was conducted in the form also of assault against its principles and institutions by argument and ridicule. Celsus and Porphyry proved, if not abler, yet more zealous and subtle combatants against Jesus, than Seneca and Tacitus had been against Moses. Trypho may be considered as expressing the grounds of Jewish antagonism to the Christian faith. Its friends had, therefore, in addition to the work of propagating truth, to defend it against this twofold opposition. The defence was undertaken by the emi­ nent men who are so well known under the name of the Fathers, and occupies not the least valuable portion of their works. The Sabbatic views of the Fathers will fall to be presented in another part of this volume. Let it be sufficient in this place to say, that by one or more of them, uncoutradicted by the others, has each of the doctrines been held, which in our days have, though improperly, been termed Sabbatarian— the primaeval appointment and patriarchal observance of a weekly day of rest and worship— the substitution by Divine authority of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath for the Jewish seventh day— and the consecration by the same authority of the former, or Lord’s day, entirely to rest from secular labour, and to the immediate service of God, as required and directed in the Fourth Commandment, cases of necessity and mercy being, as they were, also, under the former economy, excepted. The Fathers had on the subject of the Sabbath, as on others, to engage in dialectic conflicts with the Jews. Besides frequent passages which touch on Judaism, we find some of them devoting entire treatises— others, large portions of works, to the subject.1 The Sabbatic institution in particular is treated of by Novatian, and in a work ascribed to Athanasius, and is referred to in vari­ ous patristic writings, with special respect to Jewish opinions. In Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew— whether a real or fictitious person, is not certain— the Christian and Jewish arguments on, besides other points, the continued observance of the seventh day as a holy day, are presented. Trypho charges Justin and other Christians, as affecting superior excellence, and i As Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Euse- ■bins, Basil, Chrysostom, and Augustine. .. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 9 yet not at all differing from the Gentiles, inasmuch as they ob­ served neither the feasts nor the Sabbaths. To this Justin replies, that as circumcision was not necessary before Abraham, nor the celebration of the Sabbath and festivals and oblations before Moses, neither now is there any need of these observances after Christ has come.1 Irenaeus and Tertullian reason in the same way. “ Abraham,” says the former, “ believed God without circumcision and the Sabbath.” 2 “ Let them show me,” says the latter, “ that Adam sabbatized, or that Abel in presenting his holy offering to God pleased him by sabbatic observance, or that Enoch who was translated, was an observer of the Sabbath, or that Noah, the builder of the Ark on account of the great deluge, kept the Sabbath, or that Abraham amidst Sabbath-keep­ ing offered his son Isaac, or that Melchisedec in his priesthood re­ ceived the law of the Sabbath.” 3 The word Sabbath, as will afterwards more fully appear, must be understood in these passages to signify the Jewish Sabbath. The connexion of the word with “ festivals and oblations” in the argu­ ment of Justin Martyr, shows that this was the sense in which he used the term. That Tertullian employed it in the same accepta­ tion follows from the drift of his reasoning, and from his usual mode of writing ; as for example, “ We celebrate the day after Satur­ day in distinction from those who call this day their Sabbath, and who devote it to ease and eating, departing from the old custom, of which they are now very ignorant ;”4 and “ All anxiety is to be abstained from, and business postponed on the Lord’s Day.”5 Neither Justin nor Tertullian can intend to question the need or the obligation of a weekly holy day under Christianity, for they have both not only detailed the manner in which “ Sun­ day” was observed by the Christians in their times, but posi­ tively affirmed the Divine authority of the day. Irenseus, too, mentions the Sabbath along with circumcision, thus making it manifest that he refers to Mosaic ordinances, and has plainly stated his conviction that the Decalogue is of perpetual obligation, as well as that the Lord’s Day is supreme among the days of the j the only season on which it was right to celebrate ’ 1 C- 12- 1 -J*- Hceres, lib. ir. c. 30. 3 Adv Judceos, sec. 4. < Apol. c. 16. t jje 0rat' c 23. 10 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. the resurrection of Christ.1 “ The Fathers,” observes .Bishop Patrick on Gen. ii. 3, “ in saying that there was no Sabbath among the patriarchs, meant Jewish Sabbaths.” How would Justin Martyr and Tertullian have indignantly spumed the interpretation put on their words by a recent writer, when, to accomplish the un­ godly and unphilanthropic purpose of overthrowing a Divine insti­ tution, he neglects to ascertain the meaning of words employed by ancient writers, or of their views elsewhere expressed, and charges them with saying what warranted the inference that, “ except during the time of divine service, the Christians of that period lawfully might, and actually did, follow their worldly pursuits on the Sunday!”2 There is a phase of the controversy which has led to the mis­ taken notion that the Christian Church itself was for a consider­ able time divided on the subject of a weekly holy day. There were even in the days of the apostles persons who wished to im­ pose upon converts from heathenism the obligation of observing the times of the Jewish calendar, along with the other parts of the ancient ritual, an obligation from which the Apostle of the uncircumcision declared them to be free (Col. ii. 16, 17), and which was not to be required on the one hand (Acts xv. 19), or to be yielded to on the other (xxi. 25). Yet a party, the Ebi- f onites, who professed to be Christians, though they denied the ' Divinity of the Saviour, not only held and acted on the necessity of keeping the whole law of Moses, but insisted that all others should do the same. This party continued to exist for four or five centuries. But although, as Eusebius informs.us, they celebrated the Sun­ days in remembrance of the resurrection of our Saviour, yet, as they observed the Jewish Sabbath, and other ceremonies like the Jews,3 as they made this observance an indispensable part of religion, and as they disbelieved the doctrine of Christ’s Deity, they had no claim to be considered Christians.. They were ac­ cordingly ranked among heretics, and some of the Fathers wrote against them as such. Epiphanius devotes a part of his Pan- arion to the Ebionites, in which, while he holds that the first ■ CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 11 Sabbath has revolved in its septenary cycle from the beginning of the world, he also contends that the Jewish day had been dis­ charged. Besides the Ebionites, there was a class, who were sometimes confounded with them, but who, for a long period at least, re­ mained distinct, the Nazarenes. These believed in the Divinity of our Lord, but clung to the Jewish ritual, which, however, they sought not to impose upon others. Although to some extent sympathized with by the Church, they were not considered as be­ longing to it. Justin Martyr remarks, that" it Was a question in his time whether a Christian who observed the Sabbath, that is Saturday, should be admitted or not to the holy mysteries.1 Against such Sabbatarianism, not only he, but Clement and Dionysius of Alexandria, Tertullian, Victorine, Novatian, and others, testified. Notwithstanding these efforts, respect for Satur­ day gained ground. This feeling was especially cherished in the Eastern Churches, in which, from deference to the Jews, who were numerous in the East, they distinguished the day by two of the supposed prerogatives of the Lord’s Day, the standing posture in prayer, and the exclusion of fasts. Tertullian in­ forms us that a very few persons in his time began to introduce the former practice in the West. The historians, Socrates and Sozomen, attest the general observance of the Lord’s Supper on both the seventh and first days of the week, the former except­ ing the Churches of Alexandria and Rome— a very large excep­ tion— who followed an old tradition.2 And Bingham states, that towards the close of the fourth century, the observance of Saturday, like Sunday, prevailed generally throughout the East, and the greater part of the Christian world."1 But the former day was in no period of the Church’s history placed _qn alevel with the latter. In earlier times, a religious regard to the seventh ilay was paid by few, and disapproved by Christians in general. It was by many never recognised as an appropriate season for the celebration of the communion, and, as Bingham says, “ there were no ecclesiastical laws obliging men to pray 1 Dial, cum Trypho, p. 266. 8 Soer. Hist. lib. v. c. 22, and lib. v. c. 8. Soz. Hist. lib. viL c. 19. * Antiq. Book xx. c. 3, sec. 1. ' 1 Adv. Hceres, iv -jj, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 21 * 'Examn. oftU Six Texts, by a Layman, p. 271 8 Hist. lib. dii. c. 27. standing on the Sabbath ; nor, secondly, are there any imperial laws forbidding lawsuits and pleadings on this day ; nor, thirdly, any laws prohibiting the public shows and games, as op the' Lord’s D ay; nor, fourthly, any laws obliging men to abstain wholly from bodily labour.” 1 The views and practice of Christians, as respected the Saturday, therefore, did not amount to a want of unanimity in reference to the exclusive claim of the Lord’s Day to Divine authority, and peculiar sacredness. The facts bear out the statement of Archbishop Ussher, that ' “ where Saturday was kept holy day, it was not as a Sabbath, but as a preparation-day for the Christian Sabbath.” J The literary conflicts of the Christians and Pagans, in reference to the Lord’s Day, afford few materials of remark. In the first instance the persecutions of the Church, and. then her ascendency in the Roman Empire, went to preclude, in a great measure, the strife of words. It appears that so late as the beginning of the fifth century, Pagan poetry shot some envenomed shafts at the Christians on account of their weekly holy day, though under the pretence of aiming them at the so-called and less-dreaded Jews.2 At an earlier period, the heathen assailed the Christian ritual as contemptibly mean, and the Christian Sabbath as a sea­ son devoted to concealed impurity and crime. The charges of immorality, as practised on the Lord’s Day by its friends, were triumphantly disproved. Justin Martyr and Tertullian present unvarnished accounts of the harmless and holy manner in which the Christians passed the day. The latter, and Minucius Felix, turn the weapons of their enemies against themselves, for which the flagrant and shameless profligacy of paganism furnished ample occasion. The groundless allegation of Celsus, that the religion of Jesus was without a proper worship, because it had no altars, images, or temples, was met and disposed of by overpowering arguments in one of the ablest works of Origen, but for whose l Antiq. Book xx. c. 3. sec. 3. » Thus wrote Rutilius Numitianus, — Radix stultitiae cui frigida Sabhata cordi: Bed cor frigidius religioue sua est. Septima quseque dies turpi damnata vetemo Tanquam lassati mollis imago Del 1 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. immortal pages the allegation itself must have been long ago for­ gotten. Although no important discussion between Christians and un­ believers on the subject appears to have arisen in the period from the seventh century down to the time of the Reformation, and Sabbatic memorials were transferred for the most part to the canons of councils and the edicts of princes, to the abridgment of the literature of the question, yet the institution still employed the pens of the learned, and their testimony was of no little consequence to its preservation, as well as to the permanent evi- dence on its behalf. Many councils and synods directed their attention to the institution, and issued injunctions for its ob­ servance. It was the subject of frequent and uniformly fa­ vourable legislation by the civil powers. The dignitaries of the Church, particularly in England, exerted their commanding authority in their respective dioceses on its behalf. Even among the Popes, a few, awed by its sanctity, took its part. Such means, mixed up though they were in many instances with superstitious, and other impure ingredients, were the tri­ butes o human reason and conscience to the sacred claims of the weekly rest, and helped to secure its preservation, with some measure of its hallowing and humanizing influence, during fifteen centuries Rut a pecufiar honour and interest attach” to the men of those times, whether in higher or lower station, who breathed and shed around them the benignant spirit of the Divine institute, and to whom it owed, as to persons of the same defenc^ * *** °We’ lts m0St COuSeniul testimony, and best But, though the harmony of Christians on points directly affecting the authority and sacredness of the Lord’s Dav contimied S f w M c f,UPT “f fiftee" “nd « » test on ^tW 7 S° “ any questlons> led t0 110 immediate con­ test on this, yet on a practice allied to the weekly day of rest and tending to its wrong and injury, Rome and the Reformers were speedily at issue. xieiormers HOLIDAYS. From an early time piety and zeal, by adding to the institu- 2 CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 13 H SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. tions of Heaven, began, unwittingly, to prepare the way for further errors and future strife. In these feelings originated the appoint­ ment of stated days for the commemoration of particular events in the history of the Saviour. The same feelings produced an­ other class of sacred seasons. The day of martyrdom was regarded a3 “ the day of birth to a happy life for ever,” and, therefore, worthy of grateful celebration. Such days were called Natalitia. To ceremonies without Divine rule there was no limit. The saints entitled to the honour of commemoration amounted, in the course of some centuries, to a midtitude for each day of the year,1 and the annual holidays of man became more numerous than the Sabbath- days of God. Self-righteousness soon converted the invention and observance of new ceremonies into the price of salvation. Ambi­ tion saw in these things the means of promoting its objects; and the more surely to compass them, gradually withdrew the light of knowledge, while it ministered fresh fuel to the flame of supersti­ tion and fanaticism. Rome, holding in words the supremacy of the Lord’s Day, indirectly impaired its authority and influence by ranking it with her own holidays, and by imposing on her votaries both classes of institutions under the same temporal penalties, and as alike necessary to salvation. The authority of the Church was sufficient to turn the scale in favour of those Sabbath-days on which the anniversaries of her own appointment fell, and in pro­ cess of time human holidays were practically preferred to the day which Christ had consecrated for His worship. So multitudinous had sacred days and their assigned engagements become, that not only was a large amount of productive labour lost to society, but intellectual power was uselessly expended in framing and inter­ preting the rules of a prodigious system of fooleries, and con­ science was perplexed as well as the spirit borne down by the endless “ commandments of men.” “ All Christianity,” says the Confession of Augsburg, “ was placed in the observation of cer­ tain festivals, rites, fasts, and forms of apparel.” “ Daily, new ceremonies, new orders, new holidays, new fasts, were appointed ; 1 “ Except the first day of January, when the Gentiles had been so intent upon their own riots as to have no leisure for martyring the Christians.”—Durand, nation. Off. lib. vii. fol. 242. Durandus, alleging Eusebius as his authority, gives the number of martyrs at 5000 a day. The Editor of Cosin’s Works (v. 23, notes) alleges another authority than Eusebius, and reduces the number to 5001 .. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 15 and the teachers in the churches did exact these works at the people’s hands as a service necessary to deserve justification, and they did greatly terrify their consciences if aught were omitted.” “ The doctrine of the gospel,” it is further observed, “ is hereby obscured, which teacheth that sins are forgiven freely by Christ— this benefit of Christ is transferred unto the work of man.”1 And thus, also, was the law of morality made void as well as the law of faith. Oppression tends to madness and anarchy ; the over­ tasked will seek relief in licentious liberty ; holidays were turned into seasons for vice and riot; and, unprofitable for religious ends, they became auxiliaries of impiety and demoralization. The growing evil met, for many centuries, with little resistance. The later Fathers were strangely betrayed into the encouragement of the system, notwithstanding its attendant mischiefs which they observed and deplored. Not only were particular feast-days made by them the subjects of homilies and extravagant encomiums, but Basil2 and Chrysostom3 congratulated their hearers on having the martyrs as the safeguards of their country and cities against all enemies. Yet there were individuals who were not entirely car­ ried away by the prevailing delusion. JErius, presbyter of Sabacte in Armenia, of the fourth century, may be regarded as one of these, in so'far as he contended strenuously against stated days for fast­ ing, and the perpetuation under Christianity of Jewish feast-days. Of this individual, who also advocated the equality of bishops and presbyters, an interesting account is given by Neander.4 While Augustine was engaged in seeking support for the existing holidays in the authority of the apostles and councils, and Chrysostom, in lauding the pre-eminent virtues of Easter, the historian Socrates was preparing to strike a heavy blow at their doctrine in the avowal that neither the Saviour nor the apostles enjoined by any law the observance of that leading feast, which had crept in and was kept not from canon but from custom; and in censuring those who contended for holidays as for life itself, while they regarded licentiousness as a matter of indifference, thus despising the commands of God, and making canons of their own.5 About 1 Hall's Harmony of Confessions (1842), 391, 397. 3 Orat on the Forty Martyrs. 8 Horn. 70, to the people of Antioch. 4 Gen, Hist. iii. 461, 462. s Hist. Ecel. lib. v. c. 21, 22. 16 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. the same time Vigilantius, a presbyter of Barcelona, denounced, along with other corruptions, the abuses connected with vigils and festivals. His treatise on the subject was assailed with much asperity by Jerome.1 After an interval of four centuries, Claudius, bishop of Turin (fl. 817), appears on the arena as a combatant of dominant evils. “ In the abolition of all saints’ days, as in other things”— opposition to the worship of images, and the veneration of relics and crosses— “ he preceded the Calvinists.’’i 2 He was fol­ lowed by the Waldenses, of whom Reinerus Sacco, an apostate from themselves, and a Jacobin inquisitor, thus wrote about a .d. 1254— “ They hold that all customs of the Church, except those which are to be found in the gospel, are to be contemned ; for example, the feast of light, and of palms, and the feast of Pasch, of Christ, and of the saints. They work on feast-days : they disregard the fasts of the Church, dedications, and the benedic­ tions.” 3 Another writer informs us, that they rejected not only holidays in memory of saints, but all others whatsoever, as having been introduced without proper warrant, and kept no day holy except the Lord’s Day.4 It appears that in his views on this, as on other subjects, Wycliffe anticipated the reformers, and that there were many in his time who held the same opinions. He says, that “ many were inclined to be of opinion, that all saints’ days ought to be abolished in order to celebrate none but the festival of Jesus Christ, because then the memory of Jesus Christ would always be recent, and the devotion of the people would not be parcelled out between Jesus Christ and his members.” 5 .So intolerable was the evil of multiplied holidays felt to be by thoughtful men in the following century as to produce a loud call for redress. The cardinal of Cambray brought the matter before the Council of Constance (a.d. 1414).6 He also pleaded for the rectification of this and of some other disorders, in his Treatise on Reformation, holding, “ that excepting Sundays and the great festivals instituted by the Church, people ought to be allowed to work on holidays after Divine service, as well on account of the i Bruce, Annus Secularis, p. 199. Neander’s Gen. Hist., iii. 456. * Gretserus, in Altare Damascenum, p. 490. 3 Blair’s Hist, of the Wald. i. 408 1 Leger, Hist. G(n. des Eglis. Vaudois, i. 123. 6 Bruce’s A a. Sec. p. 20. * Heylyn’s Hist, o f the Sab. part 2, p. 168. CONTROVERSY ABQUT HOLIDAYS. 17 debaucheries and enormities in which the generality of people in­ dulge themselves on these days, as out of regard to labouring men who have need of all the time they breathe in to get their liveli­ hood.”1 The subject called forth the eloquent and impassioned expostulations of Nicholas de Clemangis, who describes holidays as seasons distinguished alike by the abominable obscenities of Bacchus and Venus, and by the bloody rites of Mars and Bellona, — inquires what noble or great man would not'revolt at the cele­ bration of his birthday with such villanies,— and whether any handiwork on the solemnities of the saints would not be infinitely preferable to so horrible practices,— and observes, « If a man oppressed with penury, be found to have laboured in his field or vineyard, he is cited and severely punished, but he who is guilty of these worse things shall want both punishment and an accuser.” 2 The council did adopt some measures of reformation. The Popes, however, disregarded all complaints, and not only retained the days already established, but added others daily as they saw occasion.3 If the reformers had been able to accomplish it, the evil would have been swept away. Luther repeatedly declared his disap­ proval of holidays, and his desire that they were abolished.4 “ I would to God,” says Bucer, “ that every holy day whatsoever, beside the Lord’s Day, were abolished. That zeal, which brought them first in, was without all warrant or example of the Scripture, and only followed natural reason, driving out the holy days of the Pagans, as one nail is driven out with another. These holy days have been defiled with so gross superstition, that I marvel if there be any Christian who does not shake at their vefy names.” 4 Farel and Viret achieved their removal from Geneva. On coming to reside there, Calvin acquiesced in the received custom His refusal, and that of his colleagues, Farel and Couralt, to approve of the restoration of the former practice at the dictation of the Af1,^™ Ce’S/ n’ Sec- p- j 62' Gerson>in a sermon before the Council on the Nativity of the Virgin, expressed similar sentiments, but in the same breath proposed that a new festival should be instituted in honour of Joseph’s virginity I ^ C*elebrit' n0n iDStit 8 He>'b'n’s * « . of the Sab. part 2, p. 16a ConsuUum ease ut omnia festa aboleantur, solo Dominico Die retento.-Lih ad Nobil. German. Utinam apud Christianos nullum esset festum, nisi dies Dominions - DeBon'°P er- « Bucer on Matt. x. 1] B 18 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Bernese, were among the reasons of their banishment from that city. On their departure, the holidays, as observed in Berne, with certain accompanying rites, were re-established, which, however, were again, after years of controversy, abolished by the people. Calvin declared that he had no hand in this, though he was not much displeased that it had so happened ; and that had he been consulted, he would not have given his opinion in favour of such a measure.1 “ Nor' is this,” he elsewhere states, “ the only church which retained no solemnities but those of the seventh day ; the same custom had already been introduced into Strasburg.” In no case was the dismissal of such observances more thorough and permanent than in Scotland. The First Book of Discipline de­ clares, that “ the holidays invented by men, such as Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Purification, and other fond feasts of our Lady, with the feasts of the apostles, martyrs, and virgins, with others, we judge utterly to be abolished forth of this realm, be­ cause they have no assurance in God’s Word.” When, in 1566, the Helvetic Confession, a copy of which was sent to this country, was approved by a number of the superintendents, with some of the most learned ministers, and afterwards by the General Assem­ bly, the part that sanctioned holy days, of which the Church of Scotland rejected all but the Sabbath-day, was in both cases ex­ cepted from the favourable verdict, in the General Assembly, held August 6, 1575, it was enacted, “ That all days which here­ tofore have been kept holy, besides the Sabbath-days, such as Yule day, saints’ days, and such others, may be abolished, and a civil penalty (be appointed) against the keepers thereof by ceremonies, banquetting, fasting, and such other vanities.”2 Hence the boast of King James vi., so much in contrast with his subsequent pro­ ceedings towards his native land— when, in addressing the As­ sembly of 1590, he praised God that he was born in such a time as in the'time of the light of the Gospel, and in such a place as to be King in such a Kirk, the sincerest kirk in the world : “ The Kirk of Geneva,” he proceeded, “ keepeth Pasch and Yule.3 What have they for them 1 They have no institution. As for our l For these facts, see Calv. Epist. ad Haller et ad Min. Bur. and Bonne Vs U ttm oj Calvin, i. 40, 46, notes. » Book of tlu Vniv. Kirk of Scotland (1S39), p. 151. * Easter and Christmas. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 19 neighbour Kirk in England, their service is an evil-said mass in English : they want nothing of the mass but the liftings.” 1 In other instances the success of the Reformers in this matter did not come up to tjieir wishes. We learn from a letter of Bullinger to Calvin, written in 1551, that the Church of .Zurich had recovered her tranquillity after no small discord prodded by her having discarded twelve feast-days of Rome. It appears from the Acts of Synod held at Dort in 1574, that the Belgic Churches had agreed to be content with the observance of the Sabbath.2 But the magistrates interfered to maintain some of the old holi­ days, so that the Synod held at the same place in 1578 adopted a modified resolution, to the effect— that it were to be wished that the liberty allowed by God of working six days in the week were retained in the churches, and the Lord’s Day alone devoted to rest; but since by the authority of the magistrates some other holidays are observed— Christmas, etc., the ministers of the Word shall labour by their preaching to turn the useless and hurtful practice of holiday-keeping, or idleness, into the occasion of holy and pro­ fitable employment, aud shall do the same in cities where more festivals are kept by the authority of the magistrates ; and that the churches shall endeavour, as far as possible, to have the stated observance of every feast, except Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, and Whitsunday, abolished with all due speed.3 The French Protestants entertained the same views,* only being compelled by the Edict of Nantes to abstain from working on the holidays of the Roman Catholic Church, they agreed to congregate on these days either for hearing the word preached, or for prayer, as the consistories might find convenient, that the time might not be spent in idleness or vice.5 In England, for upwards of a century after holiday abuses had been canvassed in the Council of Con­ stance, nothing was done by the authorities in the shape of remedy beyond a few attempts to secure the better observance of the existing days. In 1523, six years after Luther had begun his career of reform, Cuthbert, bishop of London, reduced the many anniversaries of church dedications in his diocese to one annual 1 Calderwood’s Hist, (lers), p 286. s Kerkdyk Hantboekje (1738),A rt 53. Hanthoekje (1738), Art. 75, Voet. Disput. Select, iii. 1309. 4 Voet. ibid. 5 Order of Synod at Vitre, Bruce’s An. Sec. p. 205. 20 SKETCHES OE SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. celebration, “ in order,” as he said, “ to diminish the number of holidays which encouraged the people to indulge in riotous ex­ cesses.” 1 But the most effectual assault on the evil was that of Henry viil, who, having broken with the Pope, and set him­ self to dissolve the monasteries, authorized Cromwell, his vicar- general, to declare in the famous convocation of June 1536, “ that it was his Majesty’s pleasure that the rites and ceremonies of the Church should be reformed by the rules of Scripture, and that nothing should be maintained which did not rest on that autho­ rity following up the intimation of this noble principle with an order for the abolition, as demanded by the moral and social in­ terests of the community, of “ the feast of the patron of every Church, and all those feasts which fall either in harvest-time—■ July 1 to Sept. 29— or in term-time at Westminster, except the feasts of the Apostles, of our blessed Lady, and of St. George, and those holidays on which the judges were not wont to sit in judg­ ment.” This order distinguishes “ the Sabbath-day ” from holi­ days “ instituted by man.” The fickle monarch, by an ordinance in 1541, restored the feasts of St. Luke, St. Mark, and St. Mary Magdalene, “ their names being often and many times mentioned in plain and manifest Scripture,” but the feasts of the Inven­ tion, Exaltation of Holy Cross, and St. Lawrence, were abolished. “ Divers superstitions and childish observances ” were also placed under ban. And thus was fixed— except that the feast of St. Mary Magdalene was excluded in 1552— the precise number of holidays which is still to be found in the Prayer-book. The conflict of the Reformers with the Church of Rome on the subject before us was soon ended. That Church was true to her motto, “ Always the same.” After the Reformers had laboured for years to correct abuses of every kind, these were all stereotyped by the Council of Trent. Rome even asserted more daringly an authority over times and seasons ; and so late as 1549, consigned to the flames a poor man who ventured to maintain his right to work on one of her festival days that he might not starve.2 On the other hand, the Reformed Churches generally settled down in the observances which they were able to secure. Although most of their leaders failed to attain in this respect all that they desired. 1 Wills. Condi. iiL 701. Fox’s AcJs and Mon., Table 0} French Martyrs, K. Hen. via. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 21 much nevertheless was gained. Happy had it been, as events have shown, for the peace and prosperity of all the Churches, if they had adopted the principle, that the Lord’s Day is the only stated holy day appointed by Christ, who has, however, given to his followers the right of appropriating occasional seasons for public worship as circumstances may require. But the popular prejudice operated so strongly in various parts of Europe, as to prevent so desirable a consummation. There were many, however, in England who were not satisfied with this state of things, and hence a contest, earnest and prolonged, on the subject of rites and ceremonies among the Protestants of that country, which resulted in the expatriation of many of her best people, and in the disrup­ tion of the Church. In this contest, as in others already noticed, there was on the one side power, the power of the oppressor. In the reign of Elizabeth, valuable though the services rendered to the Reforma­ tion were, acts were passed and measures employed, in not a few instances through the active influence of the Queen, which grieved the hearts of good men, and excluded from their churches, reduced to poverty, consigned to prison, or forced into banishment, thou­ sands of ministers— a third, says Hume,1 of all the ecclesiastics in the kingdom, many of them learned and excellent men— because they could not conscientiously submit to unnecessary compliances, which no earthly power had the right to exact. The consequent results to the nation were, that great numbers of churches were without ministers, and that three thousand others were supplied with mere readers who could not preach at all, to the promotion everywhere of Popery, ungodliness, and immorality.2 It was expected that on the accession of James to the throne of England, a prince who had avowed his attachment to u the sincerest kirk in the world,” and his abhorrence of every vestige of Popery, would do justice to the persecuted and their cause . A deputation of the Puritans, accordingly, presented to his Majesty during his progress to London, the celebrated Millenary address, entitled “ The humble Petition of the Ministers of the Church of England, desiring reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the Church,” in which they say, “ that being more than a thou- 1 Hut. (1S05), voLv. p.463. 1 Brook’s Puritans, i. «0 2 * 22 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. sand ministers groaning under the burden of human rites and ceremonies, they with one consent threw themselves at his royal feet, for a reformation in the Church-service, ministry, livings, and discipline,” praying “ that the Lord’s Day be not profaned, and the rest upon holidays not so strictly urged.” The petitioners had their fears as well as hopes, but they were not kept in sus­ pense. The king soon after declared at the Hampton Conference, that “ he would compel them to conform, or ‘ harrie’ them out of the land, or else do w o r se a n d in his first Parliament avowed, i that while he was content to meet “ our Mother-Church,” the Church of Rome, half way, the Puritans were insufferable in any well-regulated state. Accordingly, four hundred of his petitioners were in the course of a few years cast into prison, or driven from their country. These doings were followed by the introduction into Scotland of Prelacy, and four holidays against “ the sense of the Kirk and nation,” and with consequences the most disastrous to both. Measures more atrocious were employed against the Nonconformists in England and the Presbyterians in Scotland, by Charles I., till both parts of the kingdom were roused to arms, and Laud, the chief instigator of persecution, and the King himself, perished on the scaffold. Under the remarkable rule which succeeded, and which, absolute though it was, granted full toleration to all professing Christians, the Parliament passed an ordinance, setting aside all festivals, commonly called holidays, and appointing the second Tuesday in each month to be a day of recreation “ for all scholars, apprentices, and other servants, the leave and approbation of their masters being first had and ob­ tained.” The restored monarchy and ecclesiastical system brought with them the increased oppression of the Puritans, of which the crowning instance in the time of Charles II. was the passing in 1662, of the “ Act of Uniformity,” requiring every one to con­ form to the Prayer-book, rites and ceremonies of the Church, and causing the deprivation of nearly two thousand five hundred miuisters, the death of three thousand nonconformists, and the ruin of sixty thousand families. The undiminished severity of the following reign is clearly indicated, when to the mention of the name of Jeffreys, it is added, that no dissenting minister could appear in public, or travel, except in disguise, and that fourteen CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 23 hundred and sixty Quakers were in prison, not for crime, but for nonconformity. There is no satisfaction in recalling these depraved exhibitions of our common nature, except with the view of serving the ends of utility and truth. And it is pleasant to turn from them to the succession of noble-minded men who sympathized with the victims of wrong,1 and to the salutary effects of measures which, though they set at nought the claims of justice and humanity, expatriated some thirty thousand citizens, and drained the country of so much of its wealth and moral worth, wmre, under Providence, the occasion of establishing our rights at the Revolution, of training a race of men who have made America and England what they are, and of sounding in the ears of oppressors notes of warning which can never die away. From the circumstances of the Puritans, it might be presumed that there could be little intellectual controversy on questions which were summarily disposed of by authority. When, as in the days of Elizabeth, a person for saying, “ that to keep the Queen’s birthday as a holy day was to make her an idol,” might be committed to the Fleet, and another for vindicating him, might be sent to the Marslialsea,— when, as at the Hampton Court Confeience, and on many other occasions, the Puritans were sub­ jected to browbeating and abuse,— and wrhen, as afterwards, a physician, for denying the Divine right of bishops above presby- teis, a barrister for writing against plays, and two ministers for publishing pamphlets against recent innovations and prelacy respectively, were degraded, imprisoned, fined, and, in two of the cases, barbarously maimed in their persons, it may be conceived, that the prosecutors had no need, and the sufferers small encour­ agement, to enter the arena of disputation. Yet the former did sometimes descend from their vantage ground, and the latter, ' Th®E*rls <)f ®edford and Warwick, Lord Rich, Sir Francis Knollys, Sir WUliam , Beza, the General Assembly, the Parliament at various times, Mr. Attorney r r a C?VAruhbiSh0PSiGrintlal and Abb0t (n o te d ly ), Bishops Rudd and Williams etc. 1 J ° r bl® [aV0UI t0 the Puritans was under ensure for some years, and WiUiams for ‘A ® ‘,hat ‘ they *rere the King’s best subjects, and he was sure they would carry aU \ 7 7 ’ Was fined £11>000’ and e°mmitted to the Tower, his library and goods being Pa? th® A®’ t0,which was added a fine of £8000 on the discovery among his P*P of two letters addressed to him, and containing certain dark expressions. 24 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. under all their disabilities, ventured to encounter them, or even to be the assailants. Howe has condensed the history of the conflict before his time in his letter to Bishop Barlow : “ Few metaphy­ sical questions are disputed with nicer subtlety than the matter of the ceremonies has been by Archbishop Whitgift, Cartwright, Hooker, Parker,1 Dr. Burgess, Dr. Ames, Gillespy, Jeanes,1 2 Calderwood, Dr. Owen, Baxter, etc.” 3 The subject had, indeed, been canvassed in the days of Edward vi., when Hooper and others, supported by a majority of the reforming clergy, contended against the vestments and other relics of Popery, and again during the earlier years of Elizabeth’s reign, particularly in the Convocation of 1562, at which the petition for the removal of the rites and ceremonies was rejected by a single proxy vote. But Howe has accurately commenced his list with the names of Whitgift and Cartwright, since it was not till these learned men— professors of Divinity in the University of Cam­ bridge— wrote, that the points of difference received a full and formal discussion. They published each two works, in the course of the years 1572-77, which nearly exhausted the question. How Cartwright acquitted himself on the occasion may be conceived from Beza’s recommendation of him to Queen Elizabeth, as a person far better qualified to refute “ the Rhemish New Testa­ ment ” than he himself w as; and from the words upon another occasion of the same reformer when writing to a friend in England he said, “ Here is now with us your countryman, Thomas Cart­ wright, than whom, I think, the sun doth not see a more learned man.” 4 Whitgift’s part in the controversy has been pronounced learned, and, in some instances, eloquent. But it lay open to this cutting remark of Ballard, a Popish priest, “ I would desire no better books to prove my doctrine of Popery than Whitgift’s against Cartwright, and his injunctions set forth in her Majesty’s name.” 5 Within a few years there followed a discussion between 1 Robert Parker, a rector of the Church, author of Be Politico Ecclesiastim, an able treatise. 3 Henry Jeanes, also a rector, and according to Wood, “ a noted and ready disputant, a noted metaphysician.” He is the author of controversial publications against Good­ win, Milton, Drs. Hammond and Jeremy Taylor, of a subtlety quite according to Sir W. Hamilton’s own heart; and, also, of several excellent sermons. * Works (1836), p. 23. * Clark’s Lives,, pp. 18,19. 5 Strype’s Whitgift, p. 285, CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 25 Hooker and Travers, when both were lecturers at the Temple. Travers was silenced by authority. Declining an invitation to a professorship in the University of St. Andrews, he accepted the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, where he had Ussher as a pupil. He had a principal share in the composition of the Book of Discipline, afterwards the ecclesiastical directory of the Com­ monwealth. The dispute brought out the remarkable sentence from Hooker,— “ Schisms aDd disturbances will arise in the Church, if all men may be tolerated to think as they please, and publicly speak what they think.” But its chief result was, that by means of it he was induced to prepare his great work, for which purpose he withdrew to a more retired situation. The Ecclesiastical Polity has received even from those most unfriendly to its views the praise of extraordinary erudition, research, eloquence, and modera­ tion ; and of having superseded all other defences of the Church of England. But it has been too truly said, that, if written in support of the Popish hierarchy and ritual, the greater part of it would have required little alteration. The name of Dr. Arnes, or Amesius, has given importance and fame to a contest between him and Bishop Morton, with Dr. Bur­ gess, on whom the bishop devolved the task of defending his work on The Innocence of the Three Ceremonies. Dr. Ames had suf­ fered for his nonconformity, having been obliged to retire to Hol­ land, whither he was pursued by. the hostile influence even of Archbishop Abbot, who procured his removal from the English Church at the Hague, of which he had been chosen minister, and prevented his appointment to a chair in the University of Leyden. He was for twelve years the admired professor of divinity at Franeker. His third work in the controversy, A Fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies in God's Worship, which was pub­ lished in 1633, after the death of its author, and was the means of converting Baxter to nonconformity on several points, is, says Orme, “ one of the most able works of the period, on the subject on which it treats. Its author was a man of profound learning great acuteness, and eminent piety.. . . Though not professedly an answer to Hooker s Ecclesiastical Polity, it embraces everything of importance in that noted work.” 1 1 L ift and Times of Richard Baxter, p. 19. 26 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. The imposition of Prelacy, and the Five Articles of Perth, on the people of Scotland, extended the controversy to that country, where men of n* ordinary endowments were found prepared to defend their religious polity. Henderson stood forward in the Assembly of 1618, to oppose the innovations, and was, along with Calderwood and others, author of a book (1619) proving the nullity of that Assembly. The Course of Conformiiie (1622) seems jto have been the production of William Scot, minister of Cupar-Fife.1 Mr. John Murray, minister of Leith, and afterwards of Dunfermline, was the author of A Dialogue, etc. (162Q), on the recent innova­ tions. In a memoir of this individual, Dr. M‘Crie remarks, “ As Christian experience and practical godliness have been so often pressed to the disparagement of all contend ings about the external form and discipline of the Church, it may be observed, that in this eminent person they were closely united, as they have been in ‘ a great cloud of witnesses with which we are compassed about.’ ” 2 It may be added, that even were the latter class of subjects admitted to be on some accounts less important than the other, it is “ the least in the kingdom of heaven who breaks or teaches men to break one of these least commandments,” and “ the great” in that kingdom who “ do and teach these commandments.” The Nonconformists both in England and in Scotland were reli­ giously and morally, as well as intellectually, the elite of the com­ munity. It was not among them that the profane, the dishonest, the dissolute, and the ignorant were to be found. Circumstances sometimes required of them, as in the case of Calderwood, to devote their energies to the defence of points connected with ecclesiastical government and discipline. But it will generally be found that their writers were still more prolific on subjects of doctrine and personal piety, and that they were the contributors of our best works in both these departments. Jeanes, Ames, Owen, and Baxter, are a few out of many instances. The spirit of Adam Gib has been common among such men : “ I have used,” he says, “ my best endeavours all along,” for forty-five years, “ through ‘ evil report and good report,’ to maintain the cause of the Secession tes­ timony which I profess, on behalf of the Reformation-principles of the Church of Scotland, against the manifold errors and corrup- 1 Scot’s Narr., Pref. p. vi. note(Wod. Soc. Works), a Miscall Writings( 1841), p. 151 CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 27 tions of the present age. But I have very seldom entertained my hearers from the pulpit with any peculiarities of that cause. It has been always my principal, and almost only business there, to explain and enforce those doctrines and duties which are accounted of among Christians of all denominations, so far as they take the substance of their Christianity from the Bible. And I have a particular satisfaction in this providential ordering, that my former appearances before the world, in favour of the special testimony which I have espoused, are succeeded by the present appearance on behalf of the common interests of Christianity.” 1 A work of Gillespie, under the title, The English Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland (1637), though the production of a mere youth, was deemed worthy of being “ discharged by a proclamation.” Baillie extols it as a marvellous composition, and “ far above such an age.” 2 But the most- voluminous writer on the subject was Calderwood, author of the True History of the Church of Scotland (1678), who, besides replies to Dr. Morton maintaining his “ innocent” to be “ nocent” ceremonies (1623), a Re-examination of the Five Articles enacted at Perth, etc. (1636), with other books and tracts, published in 1623 the Altare Da- mascenum, “ beyond comparison the most learned and elaborate work ever written on the subject, embracing the whole contro­ versy between the English and Scottish Churches as to govern­ ment, discipline, and worship. It was never answered, nor is it easy to see how it could be answered. It was held in high esti­ mation by foreign divines, having been printed more than once on the Continent.” 3 It would be unnecessary to dwell on the writings of the decided 1 Sacred Contemplations, Preface—a work which discovers a profound acquaintance with Divine truth, and powers of vigorous thinking and writing, even when its author was in his seventy-third year. 2 Stevenson’s History, ii. p. 217. Baillie’s Letters, i. pp. 67, 68. 8 M'Crie’s Miscell. Writings (1S41), words of the editor, p. 78. In an advertisement to the reader, prefixed to the Leyden edition (1708) of the Altare Damascenum, we have the now well-known remark of James i., the implacable enemy of Calderwood, that the work was unanswerable, as there was nothing in it but Scripture, reason, and the Fathers. In his Appendix to his History, Spotswood, another enemy, is constrained to acknowledge its consummate erudition. It is mentioned by Orme as one of the means by which Baxter was brought to “ the full conviction that the English Episcopacy is a totally different thing from the primitive, that it had corrupted the churches and the ministry, and destroyed all Christian discipline.”—Life of Baxter, pp. 22, 88.. 2 8 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Owen, or of the more moderate Baxter, in this controversy, or to recall the lucubrations of Bancroft and Durell, with those of their respective opponents, Bradshaw and Hickman. And it is suffi­ cient to do little more than name the remaining principal writers ou our subject, Nicholls and Pierce, who present the substance of the controversy between the Church and the Nonconformists; Calamy and Bishop Hoadly,- whose writings have, been said to give the fullest view of the points of difference between these parties to be found in our language ; and, in reference to holidays in particular, Wheatly, who has done justice to the arguments for such seasons,1 with Professor Bruce of Whitburn, who applied his remarkable powers and acquirements to a work in which he endeavours to prove that holidays are contrary to Scripture, and fraught with injury to the best interests of society.2 We may add, that it fitly devolved on the intimate friend of Bruce, Dr. M‘Crie, to appear in defence of the principles of the Scottish Reformation, when, in 1817, the Court papers announced that the churches throughout the country were to be opened for divine service on the day appointed for the funeral of the Princess Charlotte. The late Dr. Andrew Thomson positively refused to comply with the order. A discussion ensued, which, after several pamphlets had appeared on both sides, was terminated by a pub­ lication from the pen of Dr. M'Crie3 under the name of Scoto- \ Britannus, a brochure not discreditable to the philosophy and genius of the distinguished author. As to the question of the propriety of those measures which were employed to compel compliance with the rites and ceremonies of the dominant Church, we believe that the progress of know­ ledge has left, in the minds of all enlightened Protestants, no doubt that such measures were inexpedient, incompetent, and un­ just. On the question, however, of the appointment of stated days for the commemoration of good men, or of some remarkable particulars in the life of Christ, there is still a difference of opinion. Wheatly thus defends the practice as regards “ the remembrance 1 In Rational Illustration, etc., ch. v. Of the Sundays and Holy days. 1 Annus Secularis, or the British Jubilee, etc. (1788.) 3 Free Thoughts on the late Religious Celebration of the Funeral of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales ; and on the Discussion to which it has pren rise in Edin­ burgh.—See Dr. 11‘Crie’s MisceU. Writings, pp. 356,357. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 29 of some special acts and passages of our Lord in the redemption of mankind.” “ That the observation of such days is requisite, is evident from the practice both of Jews and Gentiles. Nature taught the one, and God the other, that the celebration of solemn festivals was a part of the public exercise of religion. Besides the feasts of the Passover, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles, which were all of Divine appointment, the Jews celebrated some of their own institution, viz., the feast of Purim, and the Dedication of the Temple, the latter of which even our blessed Saviour himself honoured with his presence. As to the celebration of Christian festivals, the first Christians thought themselves as much obliged to observe them as the Jews were to observe theirs. They had received greater benefits, and therefore it would have been the highest degree of ingratitude to have been less zealous in comme­ morating them. And, accordingly, we find that in the very in­ fancy of Christianity, some certain days were yearly set apart to commemorate the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, the coming of the Holy Ghost, etc., and to glorify God by a humble and grateful acknowledgment of these mercies granted to them at those times. Which laudable and religious custom so soon prevailed over the universal Church, that in five hundred years after our Saviour, we meet with them distinguished by the same names we now call them by ; such as Epiphany, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, etc., and appointed to be observed on those days on which the Church of England now observes them.”1 In the absence of a summary by any eminent writer of the argument on the other side, we present two or three brief extracts from the writings of Amesius and Owen. The former, in the preface to his Fresh Suit, says :— “ The state of this war is this ; we, as it becometh Chris­ tians, stand upon the sufficiency of Christ’s institutions for all kind of worship. The Word, say we, and nothing but the Word, in matters of religious worship. The prelates rise up on the other side, and will needs have us allow and use certain human cere­ monies in our Christian worship. We desire to be excused as holding them unlawful. Christ we know, and all that cometh from Him we are ready to embrace ; but these human ceremonies we know not, nor can have anything to do with them. Upon 1 Rational Illustration, etc. Of the Sundays and Holydays, ch. v. Introd.' 30 SKETCHES OP SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. this they make fierce war upon us ; and yet lay all the fault of this war, and the mischiefs of it, on our backs.” In his Truth and Innocence Vindicated, Dr. Owen shows that all worship under the Mosaic dispensation was to be exclusively of Divine appoint­ ment (Exod. xx. 4, 5 ; x l.; Deut. iv. 2 ; xii. 32 ; 1 Kings xii. 33 ; Prov. xxx. 6 ; Mai. iv. 4 ); that every human addition to it was rejected in that word of the blessed Holy One, “ In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men j” that the churches of the New Testament had their foun­ dation laid in the command of our Saviour, “ Go ye, and disciple all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you that his presence was promised, “ Lo, I am with you always,” to accompany the teaching and observance of His own ordinances, not of any human super-additions; and that in no one instance did the apostles impose anything on the prac­ tice of the churches in the worship of God, to be necessarily or for a continuance observed among them, but what had the express warrant and authority of our Lord Christ.1 “ I shall take leave to say,” are his words in his treatise on Communion with God, “ what is on my heart, and what (the Lord assisting) I shall will­ ingly make good against all the world, namely, that that prin­ ciple, that the Church hath power to institute and appoint any thing or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or to manner, beyond the orderly observance of such cir­ cumstances as necessarily attend such ordinances as Christ himself hath instituted, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars, that have for so long a season spread themselves over the Chris­ tian world; and that it is the design of a great part of the reve­ lation to make a discovery of this truth.”2 It is more than probable, that, when men of the greatest learn­ ing, wisdom, and piety, engage earnestly in a controversy, perse­ vere in it, and “ suffer the loss of all things,” rather than abandon the principles which they conceive it to involve, the matter in dispute is no trifle. What must raise this probability as to the case before us into certainty, are the two considerations; first, that such questions had to be settled as, Whether Christ be the l Works (1826), xxi. 336, 337. »Ibid. x. 184, 186. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 31 sole lawgiver in his Church 1 and Whether the Scriptures be a suf­ ficient rule of worship 1 and, second, that history has proved the opinions on one side to have been productive of great good, and, on the other, of incalculable evil. And if we bear in mind the superior intelligence and morals of the Puritans as a body to those of their neighbours— the impossibility of vindicating the ceremo­ nies without striking at the above-mentioned scriptural principles, and at Protestantism generally— with the results of the systems, written, respectively, in the blessings of knowledge, religion, and prosperity, and in the reverse, we seem to have the means of de­ termining, along with the value of the contest, the side on which the truth lay ; in other words, that the one class of opinions were importantly right, and the other gravely wrong. How happy for the Church of England were she warned by her own history, and the recent mutinies in her camp, yet to fulfil the desires of her early reformers by purging away her remaining Popery ! And how sad for the churches in Scotland, should they, instead of holding fast and making real progress, come to weary of their simple religious forms, and yield to the insidious attempts of recreant sons to secularize a system of polity and worship which has been the glory and blessing of their country ! On this sub­ ject let us employ the weighty words of a distinguished Scot­ tish writer : “ This thorough reform ”— the “ abolishing at the Deformation of holidays, and a multitude of other ceremonies ”— says M'Crie, “ constitutes the high distinction of Scotland among the Protestant Churches. Its beneficial influence has extended to all departments of society; it has improved our temporal as well as our spiritual welfare ; it has freed us from many galling impositions which diminish the comforts and fret the spirits of other nations. It may be seen in the superior information of our people, in their freedom from childish fears and vulgar prejudices, in the purity of their morals, and in that practical regard which, unconstrained by forms, and unattracted by show, they voluntarily pay to the ordinances of religion. One of the worst symptoms of our state, and which may justly occasion foreboding apprehensions, is, that we are not duly sensible of our privileges, nor aware of the cause to which, under Providence, we are principally to ascribe them; and that there are many among us whose conduct gives 32 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. too much ground to suspect that they would be ready to part at a very cheap rate with those privileges which their fathers so dearly won. 1 0 fortunatos minium sua si bona norint.’ . . . . If ever the time come when the attachment of the people of Scotland to Presbytery shall be loosened and give way, its effects will not be confined to religion. To this attachment— to the soul-inspiring recollections by which it has been cherished— to the unfettered genius of our worship— to our exemption from the be­ numbing bondage of recurring holidays, political or religious, and from forms of prayer dictated on particular occasions by the Court, and to the freedom of discussion yet retained in our ecclesiastical assemblies, we hesitate not to ascribe, more than to any other cause, the preservation of public spirit and independence, which many things in our political situation and local circumstances have a powerful tendency to weaken and to crush. Those who view every expression of these feelings with jealousy, will, of course, encourage or connive at whatever is calculated to blunt them. But all who wish well to the public spirit of Scotland, as well as to her reli­ gious purity, are called upon to deprecate and resist such acts of conformity. And this resistance cannot be opposed to the evil at too early a stage. 1 Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur, Cum mala per Ion gas invaluere moras.’ ” 1 ENGLAND. No country has owed more to the Lord’s Day than Scotland, and in none was the institution more indebted to the Reformation. There it rose at once, from a position almost on a level with Rome’s crowd of fasts and feasts, to its proper honours as the one perma­ nent holy day of the Christian Church. In other Protestant lands its claims were neither so definitely settled nor so fully recognised. Among the evils remaining unredressed, not the least important were certain days of man’s consecration— those plants, which, as not of divine planting, the Reformers would have “ rooted up,” but which, left to cluster round the sacred tree of 1 Miscell. Writings, pp 574, 585. ENGLAND. 33 liberty, drew to themselves the nourishment necessary to its vigour and luxuriance. It is a matter rather of regret than marvel, that these great and good men, in exposing the prevalent error that the observance, however perfunctory, of rites and holy days, atoned for sin and exhausted moral obligation, should have let fall expressions in reference to the Lord’s Day, hardly reconcil­ able with their decided testimonies on other occasions to its authority and excellence, or with their practical regard to its claims. Nor is it surprising, though also to be regretted, that amidst their manifold engagements they should have failed to present in their writings a full exposition of sabbatic doctrine and law, instead of those unsatisfactory notices of the subject which an able writer has thus described : “ There is no regular and sys­ tematic treatise on the Sabbath in the works of the more eminent divines of that period ; it is only incidentally alluded to in con­ nexion with other points, such as the power of the Church in decreeing ceremonies, or briefly discussed in their commentaries on Scripture; or, finally, made the subject of a few paragraphs under the Fourth Commandment, in their elements of Christian doctrine. A few minutes might suffice to read what each one of the Reformers has left on record concerning the permanent obliga­ tion of the Sabbath; indeed, that part of the question is rather summarily decided on than calmly and satisfactorily examined.” 1 It is a peculiar responsibility of such men that they exert a powerful and far-reaching influence. Scotland’s Reformers did early justice to the Lord’s Day, and so, notwithstanding some unrighteous and violent attempts from without to wrest it from her, she still retains, bedimmed though it is, her sabbatic crown. The countries of -the Reformation abroad felt for a time the im­ pulse of the doctrines taught, and of the example set, by Zuing- lius, Luther, and Calvin ; but as Christianity and its weekly holy day, which are mutually conservative and stimulating, were not fully adjusted to each other, nor consequently brought to act with concentrated power on the people, the decay of both ensued ; and though a war on the Sabbath question (from which Scotland was happily free) kindled by a spark from this country, prevailed for a century in Holland, and extended to parts of Germany, yet as 1 Fairbairn’s Typology, vol. ii. p. 462. C 34 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. it ended in what Hengstenberg calls “ the gradual advance of more liberal views,” that is, such views as have left these coun­ tries well-nigh without a religion at all, another must yet be waged over the entire continent of Europe. The Reformation in Eng­ land was not so thorough as in some countries, but the spirit of its people was too ardent to let a great question be compromised and slumber, as occurred in so many Protestant States. Hence to that country accrued the glory, as respected one party— the discredit as regarded another, of being the scene of the earliest conflict within the Christian Church on subjects affecting the Divine authority, the sacred character, and thus the very existence of one of the noblest, most indispensable, and most beneficent institutions of Heaven. When the claims of the Lord’s Day are advocated on the ground that the doctrine of its Divine authority was held by the Church down to the time of the Reformation, it is not necessary to prove that the institution was never misrepresented or mis­ applied. It is enough to the argument that the doctrine was received by the universal Church, although she chose to add holi­ days, superstitious rites, and one of six ecclesiastical precepts to the simple ordinance of Heaven. Nor is this argument, founded as it is on the harmony of many centuries, destroyed by the fact that sabbatic unanimity was disturbed at. the Reforma­ tion, unless it can be shown that the ordinance was the cause of the disturbance. That peaceful ordinance, however, was guiltless. The Reformers were not aggrieved at the celebration of the weekly holy day. This formed no reason of their protest against Rome, or of their secession from her pale. It was her own inter­ minable contrivances that at last rent the Church; and it was this, her will-worship, imitated naturally enough by one class, but rejected by another, which largely contributed to alienate from each other the friends of the Reformation. Rome, ever boasting of her concord, has least exemplified it in her own community, and has been the chief cause of the divisions and distractions in civil and ecclesiastical society around her;— and thus new evidence has been added to the old, in proof of the Divine power of an insti­ tute which has continued to exist among Protestant sects and con­ troversies, not less than it was, and still is, preserved amidst all the corruptions of the Papacy. ENGLAND. 35 Although nothing entitled to the name of a general or pro­ longed contest on our subject, except in so far as it was indirectly concerned with that on holidays, was the immediate- result of the Reformation, yet there wanted not indications, then and afterwards, that diversified, and in some instances confused notions of the in­ stitution were entertained, arising from the system with which it had been mixed up, and showing that an open collision was, in the case of England at least, at hand. Luther, in his zeal against the profane and mischievous perversions of Divine commandments and ordinances in the Church of Rome, laid himself open, by strong expressions respecting the Mosaic Law and the Sabbath, to the charge preferred against him by John Agricola, of affirming the abrogation of the Decalogue— a charge which he vehemently denied, and obliged his accuser to retract, though only to be re­ newed.1 Cardinal Tolet maintained, “ that the observance of the Lord’s Day is not a law of God, but an ecclesiastical pre­ cept, and a custom of the faithful.”2 The position was substan­ tially asserted by Sir Thomas More in his Dialogues, where he avowed that the first day came in place of the seventh by virtue of tradition, and that the observance of the Sunday rested on the commandment of the Church,— “ The Sundays hear thou mass.” It is not for us to attempt harmonizing the views of such men with the doctrine taught in their Church throughout her history even to the present day— that the apostles changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lord’s Day, and that the duties of the latter are prescribed in the Decalogue. In his Answer to Sir Thomas More (1530), William Tyndale wrote slightingly of those circumstances of time to which the Church attached so' superstitious and fatal an importance; and, as extremes meet, seemed to claim for the Chiistian people a right to alter the stated day of worship, no less unwarranted than that assumed by his opponent for the hierarchy in its appointment. “ We be lords,” he says, “ over the Sabbath, and may yet change it into the Monday, or any other day, as we see need ; or may make every tenth day holy day only, if we see a cause w hy; we may make two every week if it were expedient, and one not enough to teach the people. Neither 1 Rutherford’s Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, pp. 6S-80. 2 Toleti Insti, Sacerdot. lib. iv. c. 13. 36 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. was there any cause to change it from the Saturday, but to put difference between us and the Jews, and lest we should become servants unto the day after their superstition. Neither needed we any holy day at all, if the people might be taught without it.”1 Tyndale, having finished his education at Oxford and Cambridge, conceived the purpose of translating the Scriptures into the Eng­ lish language, but finding it impossible to accomplish this in his native country, proceeded to the Continent, where he had com­ pleted a version of the New Testament with portions of the old, and had had the satisfaction of seeing many editions of the former printed and circulated, when he fell a victim to assassination in 1536, offering up with his last breath, the prayer, “ Lord, open the eyes of the king of England !” Although it does not appear that he had personal intercourse with Luther, his residence on the Continent had led him to adopt, in reference to the Sabbath, the same strange phraseology, which appears, however, in both cases, to have been compatible with substantially sound views, and re­ verent observance of the institution. “ When the Sunday came,” says John Fox, “ then went he to some one merchant’s chamber or other (in Antwerp), whither came many other merchants, and unto them would he read some one parcel of Scripture ; the which proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly, and gently from him, much like to the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was a heavenly com­ fort and joy to the audience to hear him read the Scriptures ; like­ wise after dinner he spent an hour in the same manner.”2 Frith, his convert and friend, who suffered martyrdom for the Protestant I faith in 1533, had in the year of his death written his Treatise ; on Baptism— in which, touching on the Sabbath, he follows Tyn- dale’s train of thought, and asserts the same liberty for Christians to choose a day of worship, but with this difference, that the right was in the hands of “ the forefathers,” or apostles, and that “ though they might have kept Saturday with the Jews as a thing indifferent, yet they did much better.” Without dwelling on the statement of the Convocation in 1536— “ That sith the Sabbath-day was ordained for man’s use, and therefore ought to give way to the necessity and be- 1 Works (1831) vol. ii. p. 101. * Anderson’s Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. p. 521. ENGLAND. 37 hoof of the same,” “ much rather any other holiday instituted by man,”1— we come to a declaration of sabbatic opinion, which, like that of the Convocation, has the advantage of coming from the collective wisdom of the English Church at the time. It is contained in The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian, which appeared in 1537, with the signatures of Arch­ bishop Cranmer and Bishop Latimer, Protestants ; and of Bishops Stokesley, Tonstall, Gardiner, Archdeacons Bonner and H ea th - all, except in the matter of the Pope’s supremacy, Romanists ; and, substantially repeated in the editions o f 1540 and of 1543, the latter bearing the new title— A Necessary Doctrine and E ru­ dition for any Christian Man, states that « the fourth command­ ment is distinguished from the other nine— the latter being merely moral, the former ceremonial as regards ‘rest from bodily labour the seventh day,’ which belonged only to the Jews, but moral a.s respects the spiritual rest from sin, which binds Christians at all times— the command, however, binding also to rest from all bodily labour, and to the exclusive service of God at certain times — not as formerly on the Saturday, instead of which succeedeth the Sunday, and many other holy and feastful days, ordained from time to time by the Church and called holy days, not because one .ay is more acceptable to God than another, but because the Church hath ordained that on these days we give ourselves wholly ' to holy works without impediment.” Directions follow to the bishops and clergy to teach the people not to bo. over-scrupu­ lous in time of necessity in abstaining from labour on the holy day and that idleness, gluttony, or other vain and idle pastimes bn that day, do not please God, but offend Him. There appeared in 1545, The Primer ; or Booh of Prayers containing the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments: etc “ where, to borrow the remarkable statement of another, the general confession, enumerating the violation of each of the commandments, on the fourth says, ‘ I have not sanctified the holy days with works which be acceptable unto thee, nor instruct­ ing my neighbour m virtue accordingly when we turn to the ecalogue, we find, in strict conformity with this notion, nothing more of the fourth commandment than these words only__‘ Re- 1 Wilk. Concil. iii. 827. 3 38 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. member that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’ This lopping off all mention of the six days’ creation, and of the hallowed rest on the seventh, in order to make the commandment square with the Romish doctrine, might have been a hint to Cranmer, that his opinions on this head were not yet those we are taught in the Ten Commandments of Almighty God.” 1 Cranmer’s Catechism (1548) states, that Christians are freed from the Mosaic law as regards differences of times and meats— that they have the liberty of using other sacred days than the j ewjsh— that to maintain this liberty they observe not Saturday but Sunday, and certain other days, as the magistrates, whom in • this thing they ought to obey, judge it convenient— that they must employ and bestow the Sabbath-day upon godly works and i business— and that to spend the holy days in the neglect of such works, or “ in idleness, banqueting, dancing,” etc., is “ a great sin,” “ for which God punisheth us with divers kinds of plagues, hut specially with need and poverty.” 2 It appears from the preceding extracts, that, while the Roman­ ists were disposed to support their practical abuse of the Lord s Day by corrupting its doctrine, the Reformers, as religious earnest men, would have the institution applied to pious and practical use, but knew not how to carry out, or did not clearly apprehend, the only theory by which their object could be fully gained— the theory, we mean, of a Sabbath,, moral, perpetual, and admitting of no competitor. It was reserved for Bishop Hooper to make the nearest approach to this theory that had been made since the time of Wycliffe. In his Exposition of the Ten Commandments, published in 1550, he not only advocates, with Cranmer, absti­ nence from ordinary labour, and from pastimes, on the Lord s Day, but, though admitting the Jewish Sabbath, as regarded its specific day of the week, to have been ceremonial, “ during for the time,” holds that the fourth commandment is no more cere­ monial than the second, “ all the commandments being of one virtue and strength.” i J a m e s ’ Four Sermons on the Christian Sacraments and Sabbath, p. 228. b >'W roHgET-'wBflC ™ ften in German “ for the use of the younger sort m Nuremberg, was, in 1539, translated by Justus Jonas, junior, into Latin, from Mhich it was rendered into English by the archbishop, Jonas being at the time his guest. ENGLAND. 39 These views, which were not new but very old, cannot reason­ ably be conceived to have been then peculiar to Hooper. But it is not unlikely that the writings of so learned and good a man would, with his preaching, exercise a pbwerful influence on sab­ batic opinion in his lifetime, and that this would receive fresh energy from his heroic death in the cause of the doctrines and institutions of Christ. Whatever truth there may be in this sup­ position, certain it is, that so early after the appearance of his treatise as 1551, when the Book of Common Prayer was con­ firmed by Parliament, though the Preamble of the Act rang the old changes on holidays, the commandments were for the first time added to the Liturgy, the fourth, “ Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day,” etc., being, as well as the others, succeeded by the prayer, “ Lord, have mercy upon us, and in­ cline our hearts to keep this law and that in Cranmer’s Forty- two Articles, agreed to at a convocation of bishops and learned men in 1552, are to be found the following positions of vital importance to our subject, and expressed in singularly clear and decided terms :— First, the exclusive competency of the Scrip­ tures of the Old and New Testaments to the establishment of any doctrine ; and, Second, the threefold distinction in the law given from God by Moses, which as touching ceremonies does not bind Christian men, as respects civil precepts ought not of necessity to be received in any commonwealth, and as moral con­ sists of commandments from the obligation of which no Christian man whatsoever is free. A blank in sabbatic discussion and literature of fully five years (1553-58) is accounted for by the reign of Mary and Popery, under which Coverdale, Jewell, Becon, Fox, with many more, were obliged to quit their country, and Rogers, Hooper, Biadloid, Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and others, were committed to the flames. But good resulted. The blood of the martyrs was the life of their creed, and the exiles returned, after the death of Queen Mary, only the more qualified to take part in the reco­ very and advancement of the Reformation. To the impression of those martyrdoms, and to the efforts of the men whose characters had been matured by their residence abroad, England in no small measure owed her free Bible, her improved Articles and Homilies 40 SKETCHES OP SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. her Augustan age of learning, and her Puritans, with the liberty, virtue, enterprise, and prosperity, which were the fruits of the principles, labours, and sufferings of these oppressed but noble men. To the same means was she indebted for not the least of her privileges— a Sabbath doctrinally recognised as an institution of perpetual obligation, having its changed day divinely appointed, as well as its Christian observance ruled by the fourth com­ mandment ; and which, but for her own princes and prelates, would, through the removal of useless and pernicious devices from Divine worship, have reached a closer conformity to the Word of God. Queen Elizabeth had not been above four years seated on the throne when, at her desire, the Convocation of 1562 was assembled for the settlement of doctrine in the Church. The publication of thirty-eight Articles, and of the Second Book of Homilies, now appended to the First, as all agreed to by that body, was one of the chief results. These documents, supple­ mented with a thirty-ninth Article, and otherwise slightly changed, were approved by the Convocation of 1571, and in the same year confirmed by the Queen and Parliament, as constituting, with the Book of Common Prayer, the formularies of Doctrine and Worship in the Church of England. As such, with one important and several minor alterations subsequently made, they have been recognised by her members down to the present day.1 When we examine these documents, we find the following to be their doctrine respecting the Sabbath :— That while we ought always and everywhere gratefully to remember our beneficent Creator, it appears to be His good-will and pleasure that there should be special times and places for His worship and glory— that the appointed solemn time is ascertained from the Fourth Commandment, and is a standing day in the week— that this commandment does not require of us, as of the Jews, abstinence 1 The important alteration referred to was the introduction into the Twentieth Article of the words,—“ The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith.” As this, or any similar clause, had no place in the Forty-two Articles of Edward vi., none in the subscribed MS. Articles of 1562 and 1571, and none in any such book—“ an imprinted English book as was alone confirmed by this Act of Parliament, it follows that the Church did not in her Articles of either of those years claim the power which the clause arrogates for her. ENGLAND. 41 from ordinary labour in time of great necessity, or the observance of the seventh day— that Christians keep the first day of the week, and make that their Sabbath, or day of rest, in honour of Christ, who upon that day rose from, and conquered, death— that God hath given express charge by this commandment as a thing belonging to the law of nature, and therefore as most godly, just, and good, to be retained and kept of all good Christian people, that all men shall, upon the Sabbath-day, which is now our Sun- day, cease from all weekly and work-day labour in which they ought to be employed during the six days, and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of God’s true religion and service, even as God wrought six days and rested the seventh, and blessed and sanctified it, and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour— that this example and commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord, and to choose for their standing day of worship in the week, the Lord’s Day, the day after the seventh, of which men­ tion is made in 1 Cor. xvi. and Apoc. i.— that since that time the day has been observed without gainsaying in the Church— that notwithstanding the warning against the breach of it given in the stoning to death of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath- day, there are still those that would be counted God’s people who devote the Sunday to travelling and business without extreme ueed, or to what is worse, gluttony, drunkenness, quarrelling and fighting, excess and superfluity, toyish talking, and fleshly filthi­ ness, so that God is more dishonoured, and the Devil better served on that day than upon all the days of the week besides ; and that if men will be negligent, and not forbear to labour and travel on the Sabbath-day, or Sunday, and do not resort together to mag­ nify His name in quiet holiness and godly reverence, they have reason to fear the displeasure and just plagues of Almighty God.1 To this analysis of what is contained in the Homilies on the subject, let us add an extract from the Book of Common Prayer: “ Minister.— Remember that thou keep holy the Sab­ bath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, etc. People. 1 Homily of the Place and Time of Prayer. Homilies, edit. London, 1687. 42 SKETCHES OP SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. — Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.”1 Such was in 1562 and 1571, and such is at this day the sab­ batic creed of the English Church. As prior to 1562, no seces­ sion from her pale beyond that of an individual or two had taken place, the Church may be said to have then comprised nearly the entire population of the country ; and as her creed was to exert no slight influence on the existing as well as many future genera­ tions, it was certainly of great moment that it should be accordant with Scripture. Of the one adopted different opinions have been entertained. Many, including persons of her own communion, have shown by their writings or practice that they have regarded it as rigid and unscriptural. Others, deploring its alliance with a hierarchy and ritual viewed by them as foreign from the letter and spirit of the gospel, may also take exception to some of its statements as incorrect or defective. The holidays of human appointment, for example, with which it is bound up, and which of course it does not condemn, are justly held to be a grievous wrong and bane to the Christian Sabbath. But surely it is a matter of well-founded congratulation that the Church of England has since 1562 distinctly recognised the Decalogue as a law of permanent authority, and as giving in its fourth precept a Divine and express charge to all men, that upon the Sabbath-day, which is now the first day of the week, and observed in honour of Christ and His conquest of death, they should, excepting in cases of necessity, rest from the common labour required of them on the other days of the week, and apply themselves wholly to heavenly exercises, as they would avoid the displeasure and just plagues of the Almighty, and “ declare themselves to be his loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father.” And it is as gratifying as it is surprising, that a Convocation, almost equally divided on the proposal made to it of rejecting most of the old ceremonies, and actually debating the question, Whether they should conform in outward appearances as closely as possible 1 Order o f the Administration of the Lord’s Supper. Partly as it was a minor authority, and partly as it expresses itself only less fully than the Homilies, on the Fourth Com­ mandment, we have not cited NoeU’s Catechism, which was approved by the Convoca­ tion, as was also Jewell’s Apology. ENGLAND. 43 to Popish practice, should harmonize in a verdict respecting the weekly day of worship and rest containing so much precious truth. Jewell is supposed to have been engaged with Parker in complet­ ing the Second Book of Homilies. At all events, that learned man, so desirous, some years before, that every vestige of Popery, “ the relics of the Amorites,” were removed, but soon to be a strict enforcer of subscription ; and the hardly less learned Samp­ son, who would submit to no human impositions ; appear to have concurred with the Archbishop and his courtly friends, in approv­ ing the homily on “ The place and time of prayer.” The Queen, “ the Governor of the Church,” who wras said, Argus-like, to have an eye on everything, centum luminibus cinctum caput, and who conceived that the reading of the Homilies might supersede every other means of public religious instruction, may be presumed to have read what she sanctioned. And. neither those Nonconfor­ mists who separated from the Church in 1566, nor the Roman Catholics who followed their example in 1569, seem to have offered any protest against her sabbatical doctrine, or to have withdrawn on its account. The decision thus harmoniously passed was not without an in­ fluence for good. It proved somewhat of a shield to the friends of the Lord’s Day in their efforts on its behalf, and doubtless contributed materially to the fact, that the Church of England has from that time ever numbered amongst its members many enlightened defenders and conscientious observers of an entire weekly day of sacred rest. But its beneficial operation was lamentably counteracted by the intolerant principles and proceed­ ings of many of those who were, concerned in its adoption. This they accomplished not chiefly by direct attacks on the institution, although Whitgift, writing under the direction of Parker, claimed for the Church a power by virtue of which she had appointed the first day of the week to be the Christian Sabbath,1 and the Queen xt.1 J l * Scripture not appointed what day in the week should be most meet for the Sabbath-day, whether Saturday, which is the Jews’ Sabbath, or the day now ob­ served, which was appointed by the Ohureh.” Cartwright, in replying to Whitgift’s work,^waives the point, “ as not wishing to raise up other questions than those in liana, only saying, “ There was no great judgment to make the Lord’s Day as arbi- 5“ iy, " 111 cliangeable as the hour and place of prayer. "-W hitgift’s Works, voL i. pn. SOU) isvl. ' 44 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. asserted an arbitrary right sometimes to stifle bills brought by the bishops into Parliament in favour of Sabbath observance, aud anon to banish profane players, and raze theatres and gambling- houses to the ground. It was mainly by other means that the injury was inflicted. There is nothing by which the sabbatic institution, in regard to both its theory and its practice, is more favourably or unfavour­ ably affected than the manner in which its relative ordinances are treated. In the commencement of Elizabeth’s reign, persons of the greatest learning and piety were precluded by the compliances requisite to the exercise of the ministry, from accepting charges, which were in consequence supplied by mechanics, and other equally uneducated and unscrupulous men. Thousands of the former class, who had either got over their difficulties to some extent, or been tolerated by such prelates as Grindal, were after­ wards suspended, and punished as felons. In 1559, the Bishop of Bangor wrote, that “ he had only two preachers in all his dio­ cese.”1 There were in 1583 only 2000 preachers to serve 10,000 parishes.2 At this latter period the inferior clergy of England were very generally not only ignorant and unable to preach, but men of profane and profligate characters. In a petition to Par­ liament from the inhabitants of the county of Cornwall in 1579, it is said, “ We have about one hundred and sixty churches, the greatest part of which are supplied by men who are guilty of the grossest sins ; some fornicators, some adulterers, some felons, bearing the marks in their hands for the said offence, some drunkards, gamesters on the Sabbath-day, etc. We have many non-residents who preach but once a quarter.”3 “ The conform­ able clergy,” it has been affirmed, “ obtained all the benefices in their power, and resided upon none, utterly neglecting their cures ; many of them alienated the Church lands, made unreasonable leases, wasted the wood upon the lands, and granted reversions and advowsons for their own advantage. The churches fell greatly into decay, and became unfit for Divine service. Among the laity there was little devotion ; and the Lord’s Day was generally profaned. Many were mere heathens, epicures, or atheists, espe- 1 Brook’s Puritans, vol. i. p. 21. s Ibid. p. 49. •Ibid. p. 41. ENGLAND. 45 dally those about the Court; and good men feared that some sore judgment hung over the nation.”1 That the general profanation of the Lord’s Day should be one of many evils attendant on such a scarcity and abuse of the other Christian institutions, was a necessary result. For as an author of that time observes : “ Wheresoever the preaching of the Word is not, or where men have it, and come not to it, there can they not sanctify the day in that manner that they should ; because they want the principal part of God’s service, and that which should direct them in all the rest, and make these most profitable unto them. . . . And if this be the state of the poor people, . . . . what can be said or thought sufficiently and answerably unto the sin of them who, being called the ministers of God, as they that should be chief in his sendee, and go before others in it, by preach­ ing unto them, are able and willing to do nothing less in the world than that 1 For partly they are ignorant and cannot do i t ; partly, they are given to ease, and will not do i t ; and partly, they have so many charges to look unto, that they know not where to begin to do it. And so do not only unhallow every Sabbath- day that they live, and do bestow no day in the week so ill as that which they should bestow best of all, because they neglect that which God requireth most of all at their hands ; but also are the only chief causes everywhere of unhallowing the Sabbath, and do compel the people to break it whether they will or no.”2 Accordingly, in city and country, this species of profaneness abounded. In a petition from the city of London to Parliament in 1579, it is said : “ There are in this city a great number of churches, but the one-lialf of them at the least are utterly unfur­ nished of preaching ministers ; . . . . (as to) the other half, partly by means of non-residents, which are very many, and partly through the poverty of many meanly qualified, there is scarcely the tenth man that makes conscience to wait upon his charge, whereby the Lord s Sabbath is often wholly neglected or miser­ ably mangled, ignorance increaseth, and wickedness comes upon us like an armed man. Therefore, we humbly on our knees be­ seech this honourable assembly, in the bowels and blood of Jesus 1 Brook’s Puritans, vol. 1. p. 34 ; Strype’s Parker, p. 395. * Bownd’s Sab. Vet. et Nov. Test. (1606), pp. 328, 329. 3* 46 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Christ, to become humble suitors to her Majesty, that we may have guides, that the bread of life may be brought home to us, that the pipes of water may be brought into our assemblies, that there may be food and refreshing for us, our poor wives, and for­ lorn children.”1 We have discovered no proof that this heart­ rending appeal met with any success or even attention. The Queen could not, indeed, grant the petition consistently with her procedure only two years before, and with her cherished principles on that occasion expressed. When in 1577 she sent for Archbishop ' Grindal, and commanded him to put down the exercises or pro- phesyings, which he had been careful so to regulate as to preclude the possibility of any reasonable objection to them, she told him that “ it was good for the Church to have but few preachers, three or four in a county being sufficient.” Curates, though in­ capable of preaching, might, in her view, adequately discharge their duty by. simply reading the Homilies. Iu vain did the archbishop remonstrate with her in “ a long and earnest letter,” in which he declared that the Homilies, originally intended only to supply the lack of preachers, were, by the statute of Edward vi., to give place to sermons whensoever they might be had— that by the Canons every bishop had authority to appoint exercises for the improvement of inferior ministers, and that whereas, before the exercises were commenced there were not three able preachers, thirty were now fit to ^preach at St. Paul’s Cross, and forty or fifty besides were qualified to instruct their own cures. The only result was, that by an order from the Star-Chamber, and without consulting with the bishops or any of the clergy, she confined him to his house, and suspended him from his archiepiscopal functions for six months.2 Neal says, “ Towards the close of this letter, his Grace declares himself willing to resign his bishopric, if it should be her Majesty’s pleasure, and then makes these two re­ quests : 1. That your Majesty would refer ecclesiastical matters to the bishops and divises of the realm, according to the practice of the first Christian emperors; and 2. That when your Majesty deals in matters of faith and religion, you would not pronounce so peremptorily as you may do in civil matters; but remember 1 Bownd’s Sab. Vet. et Nov. Test. (1606 , p. 41. * Neal’s History of the Puritans (1732), vol. i. pp. 352-58. ENGLAND. 47 that in God’s cause, his will, and not the will of any earthly creature, is to take place. ’Tis the antichristian voice of the Pope, ‘ Sic volo sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas.’ He then puts her in mind, that though she was a great and mighty prin­ cess, she was nevertheless a mortal creature, and accountable to Godj and concludes with saying, that he could not without offence of the majesty of God send out injunctions for suppressing the exercises.” The truth is, Elizabeth could not have favoured a free and general gospel without consciously endangering that arbitrary power which would “ suffer no one to decline either to the left or to the right hand from the drawn line limited by authority and her own laws and injunctions,” and which punished w ith ruinous fines, suspension, and even death, worthy and learned men for declining to observe foolish and unscriptural practices, required in some instances by laws that were unconstitutional, and in others by no law at all. But had she with enlarged and true wisdom desired to reign on principles of justice alike to her­ self and to her subjects, she might have rejoiced in the most extended supply of the preached word, the best of all means for securing stability to the throne, and prosperity to the people. Of this mind were the citizons of London who thus continue their address to the Parliament: “ So shall the Lord have his due honour, jwu shall discharge good duty to her Majesty, many lan­ guishing souls shall be comforted, atheism and heresy banished, her Majesty have more faithful subjects, and you have more hearty prayers for your prosperity in this life, and full happiness in the life to come.” Could any petition have been more respectful and courteous t And yet the petitioners belonged to a class, who because a few of their number were driven by oppression to the use of strong and even unbecoming language— was it wonderful 1 --have as a body been maligned as rude and troublesome men. They were so regarded even by the Queen, and most of the pre­ lates, who, bound, the one to be a nursing-mother to the Church a terror not to good works but to the evil,"and the'others, to feed the flock of God, not as being lords over His heritage, but ensamples to the flock, were, in reality, more active and zealous in putting down the instrumentalities of good, than in enlightening ignorance, or rooting out profaneness and vice. 4 8 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Contemporary writers bear melancholy testimony to the preva­ lent violation of the Fourth Commandment in those times. The chief transgessor was the leading personage in the- country, who had nearly as little veneration for the day as she had for the name of God.1 Instances are indeed given of the Queen’s presence at public worship. Wood says, that Noell, Dean of St. Paul’s,»“ for thirty years together preached before her the first and last sermons in the time of Lent, wherein he dealt plainly and faithfully with her, without dislike.”2 This was good, and it would be well if, instead of thanking one chaplain for his “ pains and piety ” in defending “ the real presence,” or ordering another— Noell himself, if we mistake not— to desist from “ his ungodly digression” against “ the sign of the Cross,” she had sunk the Papist in the Christian, and merged the monarch in the subject of a higher Sovereign. It was well, too, that sometimes in her numerous “ progresses ” she rested on the Lord’s Day, and attended the nearest parish church ; but it would have been better not to subject the servile functionaries at Cambridge to the repetition of any part of the worship by her caprice and lateness, or to conclude the day by coun­ tenancing the representation of a play of Plautus in “ the King’s College Church.” “ Unfortunately,” as Miss Strickland observes, “ her respect for the Sabbath was confined to the act of joining in public worship, for the rest of the^day was devoted to sport3 not meet for any Christian lady to- witness, much less to provide for the amusement of herself and Court; but Elizabeth shared in the boisterous glee with which they were greeted by the ruder portion of the spectators. Bear and bull baitings, tilts, tourneys, and wrestling, were among the noon-day divertissements of the maiden Majesty of England ; dancing, music, cards, and pageants brought up the rear of her Sabbath amusements. These follies were justly censured by the more rigid reformers.”3 1 We are informed that the practice of profane swearing, so much a national sin and disgrace, had in the preceding century grown to be so conspicuous, as to secure on the Continent for an Englishman a name taken from one of his own impre­ cations—that, by which he desired for himself the most fearful of all calamities— and that the masculine daughter of the bluff Harry was particularly distinguished in her time by the terrible vigour and roundness of her oaths.—Eccleston’s Antiquities,■ pp. 222, 223, 319. 8 Athen. Oxon. voL i. p. 271. * Lives of tte Queers of England (1813), voL vi. p. 122. ENGLAND. 4 9 The sabbatic practice of the ministers of religion was, for the most part, little better thin that of their Sovereign. Men of their order had been for centuries the writers and actors of the mys­ teries, miracle-plays, and moralities, or scenic representations, which, after the model of the Roman stage, had been introduced into the service of the Church. The original design of these repre­ sentations was to impress on the minds of the people the facts of Scripture, the deeds of martyrs, and the lessons of virtue, but the performers in course of time applied their pens and histrionic powers to such exhibitions as the Feast of the Ass, and the Feast of !• ools, till places of worship were turned into theatres, and the clergy became common players. “ To what base uses we may return, Horatio !” Cardinal Wolsey attempted to put an end to this plurality of funotions, and Bishop Bonner endeavoured to exclude common plays from the churches, but in both cases in vain. And when it is considered that of thousands of Popish ecclesiastics, only two hundred and forty-three were honest enough to quit their livings in 1558, at the accession of Elizabeth,1 and that in 1579, many of the incumbents of churches were “ dis­ guised Papists, more fit to sport with the timbrel and pipe than to take into their hands the book of ^rod,” ^ it does not surprise us to learn that in 1572 such things were enacted as an author of that year, when describing clerical neglect of duty, thus por­ trays : “ He posteth it (the service) over as fast as he can gallop ; for either he hath two places to serve, or else there are some games to be played in the afternoon, as lying for the whetstone, heathenish dauncing for the ring, a beare or a bull to be bayted, or else jackanapes.to ride on horseback, or an enterlude to be played; and if no place else can be gotten, it must be doone in the church. ”3 The progress of society, however, brings a division of labour; and these performers, satisfied with the pleasures of remembered exploits, and with the prospect of their posthumous fame as the founders of the English drama, must soon bid farewell to the sock and buskin, in some such words as Shakspere would shortly put 1 Neal’s History of the Puritans (1732), vol. i. pp. 156, 157. 1 Strype’s Aylmer, p. 32. * Whitgift’s Admonition (Works—Parker), vol. i. p. 884. D m 50 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. into tile mouth of Othello, “ Our favourite occupation’s gone.” Already have rivals made their debut, who, though excluded from the consecrated boards, find ampler scope for their versatile talents in “ large inns,” and are not prevented from imitating their spi­ ritual guides in the selection of the sacred day as the most con­ venient time for their exhibitions. In 1574, when a plague was decimating the population of London, these persons so outraged all religion, decorum, and humanity, in pandering by their “ un- shamefaced speeches and doings,” to seduction and robbery— for which these inns afforded every facility— as to compel the Com­ mon Council to subject the plays to a rigid censorship, a measure which the Queen and her Council, appealed to against it by the players, followed up with an order restricting the performances to certain hours before sunset.1 These weak and partial remedies having failed, and the proposal made in 1579 of the only effectual one— increased religious instruction— being oppose^ to the royal creed and will, it was deemed necessary to resort to violence, and in the following year we find her Majesty yielding to the suit of the magistrates for authority to “ interdict plays and interludes on the Sabbath-day,” and to that, moreover, of “ many citizens and gentlemen,” for leave xo “ expel the players out of the city, and to pull down all the play-houses and dice-houses within the liberties.” 2 A writer of that year, lamenting the “ corruption of youth, the profanation of the Sabbath,” and other evils, which “ the infamous players” had inflicted on society, says, “ The Lord is never so ill-served as on the holidays, hr then hell breaks loose"i The Queen’s passionate partiality for the more barbarous and equally profane and demoralizing sports, which had for many years drawn crowds to the Paris garden in Southwark on Lord’s Days, may have discouraged any petition, as certainly it would prevent on her part any spontaneous effort for their suppression. They received in 1583 a temporary check, though not from “ governors, who are sent by Him for the punishment of evil-doers, as well as for the praise of them that do well.” On January 13, of that year, being the Sabbath-day, a thousand persons 1 London, etc., by Brayley, vol. i pp. 284, 285. a Morer On the Lord's Day, pp. 300, 301. * Blast of Retreat from Plays, in Bruce's An. i'u>. p. 174. ENGLAND. 51 having assembled to enjoy a bear-baiting, “ one of the scaffolds” broke down, when eight men and women were killed and many were “ hurt and bruised to the shortening of their days.” The “ foul abuse,” however, “ shamelessly lifted up its head again,” till it was finally removed by king James.1 It was in the same year that Elizabeth first allowed a public company of players to act under her name and authority. “ When a regular theatre was at length established, plays were acted at first only on Sundays, but the actors soon contrived to make four or five Sundays a week. The hour at which the play usually commenced was one o’clock in the day, when a flag was hoisted on the top of the building, where it remained till the close of the entertainment, which lasted generally about two hours.” 2 There were other flagrant abuses of the Sabbath. Throughout that holy day provisions were everywhere bought and sold, and pedlars disposed of their wares in the porches of the churches— offences, which it appears to have been accounted no small feat of legislation to restrain during canonical hours.3 In the rural dis­ tricts, that day was the chosen time for shooting, hunting, hawk­ ing, tennis, fencing, and similar exercises, and for the performances of strolling players and buffoons. These votaries of gain and pleasure wrould visit the churches, some, possibly, to quiet their consciences, and some to express their contempt. Falconers were to be seen there with their bows and arrows, with their dogs at their heels, and their hawks upon their fists.4 And morrice- dancers, with suchlike characters, would play unseemly parts, with scoffs, jests, wanton gestures, and ribald talk, in the place, and during the progress, of Divine worship.5 To this manner of spending sacred time there were happily many exceptions. But the facts presented give evidence of a wide­ spread disregard for the sanctities of the Sabbath, while they not 1 Bownd’s Sabbatum, etc., p. 257; Neal, vol. i. p. 390. 1 Eccleston's Antiquities, p. 309. 8 This was all that was attempted in Cranmer’s Visitation Articles, the Canons of 1571, and Grindal’s Injunctions. The restrictions upon publicans and pedlars, in following their vocations, were limited to the time of common prayer, preaching, reading of the homilies or Scriptures, or (as it is in one case provided with all the simplicity of the Elizabethan style of religious education), “ to the time of sermon, if there be any sermon.”—Wilk. Concil. iv. pp. 24, 266, 269; Neale’s Feasts and Fasts, pp. 184,485. * Bownd’s Sabbatum (1606), pp. 263, 264. 8 Brook’s Puritans, \oh i p. 256. 52 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. obscurely indicate a corresponding measure of immorality in the country and period under review. When it is added, that the criminal calendar, much lighter than that of modern Spain, was yet three times heavier than that of Ireland in the most disturbed of its recent years— the annual number of executions in a popula­ tion of scarcely five millions being four hundred— we see reason to concur in a remark which has been made, that “ merry England under Elizabeth was rather a terrible country to live in.”1 For this state of things the responsibility appears to have at­ tached chiefly to the highest authorities in the Church. They refused to comply with the demands of many for further reforma­ tion. They set themselves against measures for instructing an ignorant clergy. They exercised hardly any discipline on wrong­ doers, however scandalous, whether ecclesiastics or people. Their main religious business, indeed, for the greater part of Elizabeth’s reign, seems to have consisted in persecuting, when they ought to have been employed in encouraging, their most learned and useful ministers, against whom no occasion could be found except as concerned the law of their God. And thus they reaped as they had sown. The sanctioned remains of the old oppression, super­ stition, and ignorance, yielded, according to their amount, the natural and wonted produce of profaneness, profligacy, and crime. Nor was their example without its blighting influence on the religion and morals of the land. We have already adverted to some of the lessons practically inculcated by the Sovereign, whose sex, early sufferings, acquirements, energy, self-identification with her people, dignified bearing, and successful government, made her the object of the nation’s honour and love, and thus the more powerful for good or evil. Of Archbishop Parker it has been said, “ His Grace had too little regard for public virtue ; his entertain­ ments and feastings being chiefly on the Lord’s Day : nor do we read among his episcopal qualities of his diligent preaching, or pious example.”2 After his death, Aylmer, bishop of London, and Archbishop Whitgift, may be said to have been the leading men of the Church for many years. The former, the honoured tutor of Lady Jane Grey, then an exile for his Protestantism, 1 Wade’s Middle and Working Classes (1842), p. 23. 3 Neal’s Puritans vol i. p. 341. ENGLAND. 53 afterwards on the accession of Elizabeth an ardent reformer, justly though coarsely assailing, in his Harbour for Faithful Sub­ jects, the extravagant emoluments, dignities, and authority of the bishops, became in due time a conformist, alleging, on being twitted with his former opinions, that “ when he was a child he spake as a child, and thought as a child.” The latter, though he shrank from being a confessor in the days of Mary, felt a tran­ sient glow of indignation at the treatment by Parker of the Puri­ tans, but he also, on reaching the years of discretion, devoted him­ self to the support of things as they were. Both were persons of talent and learning, but they alike fell into an error fatal to their character as ministers of religion, when they surrendered their consciences to the will of an earthly sovereign. “ The eye was not single,” and hence the dark procedure of severity to faithful “ fellow-servants,” of indulgence to the unfaithful, of forbidding some, and not providing others, to speak to the ignorant that they might be saved. While we recognise with pleasure the sympathy of Aylmer with the sufferers in the plague of 1578, and the in­ terest taken by Whitgift in public charities, with his ultimate relenting towards Cartwright, when this great antagonist, in ap­ pearing befipre him, “ behaved with so much modesty and respect,” we are bound to say that their standard of Christian principle and conduct was far from being high. Love to the Sabbath, rever­ ence for the name of God, regard to truth, mercy, humility, and justice, are among the plainest marks of moral excellence. The bishop “ usually played at bowls on the Sundays in the afternoons, and used such language at his game as justly exposed his charac­ ter to reproach j”1 the archbishop “ called in” a book which was producing a “ more solemn and strict observation of the Lord’s Day” in the country,2 and was in the “ constant custom” of mak­ ing promises to the great, of kindness towards the nonconformists, which he never fulfilled.3 The spirit of the one was as high as that of the greatest lord in the land ;4 the spirit of the other 1 Neal’s Puritans, vol. i. p. 576. 3 Fuller’s CTmrcA History (1655), Book ix. p. 227. Fuller cites Rogers, as in Preface alIegmg that Bownd’s Sablatum, the hook referred to, was called in by ft hitgift. The same allegation is made by Heylyn, though, as we shaU see, discredited by Twisse. ’ 3 Neal’s Puritans, vol. i. p. 218. 4 Strype’s Aylmer, p. 84. 54 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES. showed itself in affecting a pomp, which in his retinue, of some times a thousand horsemen including a hundred servants, many of them with gold chains, resembled that of Wolsey, and in his cathedral worship emulated the gorgeous ceremonial of the Pope’s chapel.1 His lordship of London, instead of carrying out his early proposal that the bishops should apply the superfluities of their large revenues to the maintenance of the wars which they had procured, and to the extension of schools and preaching, became an accumulator of money,2 while his Grace of Canterbury “ seldom failed to offer” “ the perpetual incense of profuse adula­ tion at the shrine of secular power,” 3 of which a mournful instance was afforded when he ascribed the King’s medley of learning and folly uttered at the Hampton Court Conference to the special assistance of time Spirit of God. Both were choleric men, who poured out the language of the most undignified abuse on the Puri­ tan ministers, and indulged in a treatment of them, which, on the part of the bishop, amounted sometimes to brutality and outrage on common justice,4 and, on that of the primate, “ savoured,” according to Lord Burghley, “ of the Romish Inquisition j” and, in the complication of toils spread for entrapping victims, exceeded the Inquisition of Spain— the whole being a device* to seek for rather than to reform offenders, and tending to encourage Papists as well as endanger the Queen’s safety.5 Let not ignorance of the principles of true liberty be assigned as an apology for any doings of the kind, still less for their grosser forms, or for the con­ duct of Puritans, whether in submitting to them then, or in imi­ tating them in any measure afterwards. These principles lay clearly before them in the Bible. They were not altogether un­ known to Zuinglius, Luther, or Queen Elizabeth’s council. And persecution is the error, not of mere times and circumstances, but of human nature— of the heart rather than of the head. That under such an ecclesiastical rule the nation did not revert to Popery, as more than once it was apprehended it would, o~ that it did not sink to a lower depth, was owing to the measure of reformation which it retained, and to the agencies and means l Paule's Life of Whitgift (Lond. 4to, 1612), pp. 78, 79. . « Neal, vol. i. pp. 441-443. s*Toplady’s Works (1837), p. 212. 4 Neal, vol. i. pp. 365, 374, 383, 432, etc 6 Fuller’s Church History, B. ix p. 155. ENGLAND. 55 of, good, which, though crippled and borne down, were not extin­ guished. It was good for England that its civil affairs were under the direction of wise counsellors who knew how to influence the regal will, particularly Lord Burghley, one of the greatest of statesmen1— that the Queen, who dreaded the liberty of the press, of the pulpit, and of Parliament, made her subjects nevertheless welcome to the Homilies, to the Prayer-book, to. the Catechism, to Jewell’s Apology and Reply, to Fox’s Acts and Monuments— all containing much precious truth ; and, above all, to an open Bible, of which one hundred and thirty distinct publications were issued in the course of her reign,2— and that neither she nor others could altogether prevent such men as Grindal, whom Bacon called “ the greatest and gravest prelate of the land,” Pilkington, Parkhurst, and Noell, from sowing beside all waters the seed of truth, or the Puritans from doing much good under the sheltering wings of these good men, and, when deprived of their protection, from being received into the houses of the nobility, gentry, and wealthy citizens, where they discharged the duties of chaplains and tutors with a beneficial effect which was experienced in the next generation. It was, under Providence, to such means as these, in other words, to the degree in which the principles, of the Reformation exerted their enlightening and elevating power, that England was indebted for her superiority in commerce, wealth, literature, and military fame, to the other nations of Europe. Of these means not the least salutary remains to be noticed. If any one thing more than another turned the people adrift on the sea of ungodliness and vice, and defeated the ends of religion and government, it was an unsanctified Sabbath. In proportion therefore, as any applied the institution to its purposes of sacred rest and service, they kept themselves and those under their care from moral min, came with their families under the power of sanctifying objects and exercises, leavened instead of further cor­ rupting the human mass around them, and brought down on their 1 “ The High Church policy which may be traced in the councils of Elizabeth, from the death of Lord Burghley, certainly went far to weaken her popularity during the last years of her reign.”—British Quarterly Review for February 1848, p. 74. * Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii. p. 353. 56 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. country, in its arms, trade, and literary studies, the enriching blessing of Heaven. The men, too, who urged sabbatic claims on their brethren from the press or pulpit, were signal benefactors to the religion and every interest of the community. Wherever there is sound and practical Christianity, there must be friends and advocates of the Lord’s Day. Tyndale in the twilight of a transition from the darkness of Popery to the light of Reforma­ tion, though he may utter crudities in the heat of his zeal against arrogant assumption, must, as the appropriated time in the weekly cycle comes round, obey at once the Divine command, and the instinct and necessities of his new nature, by retreating into an inner and holier sanctuary. Over England, there doubtless were many both before and after the Reformation, who, feeding on such portions of the word of God as they possessed, spent His day in sacred thoughts and acts, and wept in secret places over the abuse and waste of its golden hours. Various instances of reverence and zeal for that day have already appeared in the course of this sketch. And we must now hastily notice some other illustrations of this spirit, as it appears struggling against the opposite error and evil in the few years that must yet elapse ere the sabbatic institution be for the first time the occasion of convulsing the Church. For twenty years after the settlement of the doctrines of the Church in 1562, the friends of the Sabbath seemed to have occa­ sion for exerting themselves against practical rather than theore­ tical errors on the subject. Instances of their zeal in this respect have already been noticed. Let others be now added. There appeared about the year 1577, a treatise by John Northbrooke, minister and preacher of the word of God, reprinted, singularly enough, by “ the Shakespeare Society” in 1843, which was de­ signed to “ reprove,” by the authority of Scripture and ancient writers, a variety of idle pastimes, “ commonly used on the Sab- both-day.” It is the fourth instance in which the institution, so far as we have seen, has been mentioned in the title-page of any book ; but on examining the work, we find that its sole object is to prove, that “ dicing, dauncing, vaine plays, or enterludes,” etc., are at all times improper and hurtful, from which we are left to draw the inference, that they are especially so on the ENGLAND. 57 Lord’s Day. Northbrooke was followed by Humphrey Robartes, in A Complaint for Reformation of similar abuses, published in 1580. We have not seen this publication, nor one of the year 1583, which considered the calamity in the Paris garden as a Divine judgment, and called for reform in reference to Sabbath observance. After mentioning the execution this year of two ministers, Messrs. Thacker and Copping, who, though “ sound in the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, and of un­ blemished lives,” were condemned to die for circulating a work against the Book of Common Prayer, the author himself, Robert Brown, being at the same time pardoned and set at liberty, Neal observes, “ While the bishops were thus harassing honest and conscientious ministers for scrupling the ceremonies of the Church, practical religion was at a very low ebb ; the fashionable vices of the time were profane swearing, drunkenness, revelling, gaming, and profanation of the Lord’s Day ; but there was no discipline for these offenders, nor do I find any such cited into the spiritual courts, or shut up in prisons. If men came to their parish churches, and approved of the habits and ceremonies, other offences were overlooked, and the court was easy.” 1 The Lord Mayor of London evinced a concern for the Sabbath-day, which honourably distinguished not a few who held the office both be­ fore and after his time. Writing that year to the Lord Trea­ surer, soon after the tragic scene in the Paris garden,' he says, that “ it gives great occasion to acknowledge the hand of God for such abuse of his Sabbath-day, and moveth me in conscience to give order for redress of such contempt of God’s service j” adding, that for this purpose he had treated with some Justices 1 Neal, vol. i. p. 390. Bishop Aylmer displaced a minister, because he had in­ formed him that “ within the compass of sixteen miles there were twenty-two non-resi­ dents, thirty insufficient and scandalous ministers, and nineteen silenced for refusing subscription," and because it was alleged, that he was chosen by the people, had defaced the Book of Common Prayer, denied that Christ descended into the regions of the damned, and kept persons from the Communion, wrhen there was more need to allure them to i t ; hut refused compliance with the petition of the parishioners to remove that minister’s successor, saying, “ that he would not, for all the livings he had, put a poor man out of his living for the fact of adultery." And yet this rigid disciplinarian in rituals though not in morals—in transgressions of human, not oi Dirine injunctions, made his own porter minister of Paddington 1 Strype’s Aylmer pp 120, 121, 212, 213; Brook, vol. ii. pp 166, 158, note. 58 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. of Peace in Surrey, who expressed a very good zeal, but alleged want of commission, which he referred to the consideration of his Lordship.1 Neal states that the Court paid no regard to such remonstrances. Neither the Queen nor the Bishop of London could consistently with their own practice interfere. But what has become of Burghley, who had made sacrifices for his religion, who had such power in the council, and who uttered the noble words, “ I will trust no man if he be not of sound religion, for he that is false to God can never be true to' man ” 1 The person who had such views, and who “ never retired to rest out of charity with any man,” was not likely to forget his duty on this occasion ; but how he acted we are not aware. To the year 1583 belongs the first appearance of Gervase Babington (born 1551, died 1610) as an author on our subject. In his work of that year, An Exposition of the Ten Command­ ments, of which another edition appeared in 1586, and in his Commentary on Genesis, which is to be found in his collected works of 1596 and 1615, he maintained the primaeval institution of the Sabbath,— the Divine authority of its transference from the seventh to the first day of the week,— and the obligation of devot­ ing the Lord’s Day, except in cases of absolute necessity, to holy rest and service, according to the prescription of the Fourth Com­ mandment. Having been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became Fellow, and having taken his degrees of A.M. and D.D., he was made domestic chaplain to the Earl of Pem­ broke, whose Countess he assisted in her version of the Psalms into English metre. After a course of diligent study, and show­ ing himself a most impressive preacher, he was appointed prebend­ ary of Wellington in 1588, and in 1591 advanced to the bishopric of Llandaff, “ thence translated to Exeter, thence to Worcester, thence to Heaven,” says Fuller, who adds, “ He was an excellent pulpit man, happy in raising the affections of his auditory, which having got up, he "would keep up, till the close of his sermon.” It has been further said of him, that he was remarkably devoid of the failings which attach to some even of the best of men, and that his life was spent in the cultivation of his mind, and in the exercise of every virtue. 1 Neal, vol. i. p. 390. ENGLAND. 59 While a few were thus coping with a wide-spread, and, by the chief authorities, practically sanctioned evil, a greater number were applying the remedies of a preached gospel, and private religions instruction, in various parts of the kingdom. Greenham at Dray­ ton, Bownd at Norton, and Perkins at Cambridge, had, for a longer or briefer space, proclaimed those weighty and impressive truths* relative to the Sabbath, as to many other subjects, which were after­ wards given to the world in their valuable works. Thomas Rogers at Horningsheath would, before his suspension for nonconformity, render good service to the institution, though he saw reason ere- - long to change his opinions, and turn informer against the culprit, who was, to his taste, unduly zealous for the just, holy, and good commandment, “ Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.” Others there were, in considerable numbers, who, if not so cele­ brated, were like-minded men. When Dr. Bownd was suspended, between two and three hundred ministers shared his fate. We wonder that the race of Puritans was not extirpated. But as hundred after hundred of them were suspended, others were seen to spring up as from the ground, like the fabled crop of armed warriors of old, or rather like the veritable people, of whom it is testified that, “ the more they afilicted them, they more they mul­ tiplied and g r e w s o that after thirty and forty years of oppres­ sion, there were in 1592, according to Sir Walter Raleigh’s state­ ment in Parliament, twenty thousand nonconformists without, and in 1603, according to the words of the Millenary Petition, upwards of a thousand ministers who were aggrieved at ceremonial strict­ ness and sabbatic laxity, within, the pale of the Church. It was remarkable, moreover, that the pulpit and the press were left so free to the advocates of- the Lord’s Day. The Queen appeared to be content with the neglecting of petitions, and the quashing of Par­ liamentary bills, having for their object its better observance. The leading prelates, what with looking after unsurpliced incumbents, what with enjoying their entertainments or games, seemed to have their hands full. At all events, though Greenham, Perkins, and Dod. suffered on account of the ceremonies, they, with Bishop Babington, and others, were all, excepting Smith and Bownd, per­ mitted to plead the claims of the weekly holy day without harass­ ment or hindrance. 60 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. It might be conceived, from the state of matters in 1584, that the efforts employed on behalf of the institution had been unsuc­ cessful. A writer of that year informs us not only that few spent the Lord’s Day in the public and private exercises of religion, « the greatest multitude of men and women of all degrees and callings, letting loose the reins and giving out the bridle unto all kinds of vanities and licentiousness,” but, what has not previously appeared, that there were “ manifold disputations among the learned,” and “ a great diversity of opinion among the vulgar people and simple sort, concerning the Sabboth-day, and the right use of the same”— some maintaining the unchanged and unchange­ ab le obligation of the seventh-day Sabbath ; others utterly deny­ i n g that there ought to be a dedication of any day to the Divine service ; and a third class, while they granted that the first day of the week should be appropriated to the use of the ministry and church meetings, holding that every man might lawfully follow his usual calling on that as on any other day. And yet, without questioning that bad practice in some had led to the adoption and avowal of bad principles, we have no doubt that the alleged dis­ putes and diversities gave evidence that the general mind was awakened to thought and inquiry, which further information would guide to a good result. One effect would be that religious men would avail thetnselves of the spirit abroad in the community by imparting sound instruction. It was so in fact. The writer referred to was an instance. He translated and published that part of the works of Ursinus which treated of the Fourth Com­ mandment, observing, in “ The Epistle Dedicatory,” from which the preceding information has been derived : “ I have thought with myself that I could not do better than to seek out a remedy for the staying of the consciences of the weaker number in this great variety and doubtfulness of assertions, tending to the overthrow of religion and impeachment of God’s service and “ finding the argument [of Ursinus] fit for the circumstance of the time, I have turned the same into our mother tongue, for the further benefit of the godly and christianly disposed, that they may have in this point wherewith to satisfy both themselves and others.” 1 i Of tills worthy man we have ascertained nothing more than is stated on the title- page of his translation, where he designates himself “ John Stock wood, Schoolmaster ENGLAND. 61 Archbishop Whitgift, on his elevation to the primacy in Sep­ tember 1583, received from the Queen “ a strait charge,” as he afterwards termed it, to restore the discipline and uniformity of the Church, which, through some conniving prelates, the obstinate Puritans, and a few powerful noblemen, had “ run out of square.” And when we consider that within the year he had published his three Articles, procuring for their enforcement an ecclesiastical commission, with powers beyond those of any preceding one, and that, not satisfied with the domestic misery and spiritual desolation spread by these engines of cruelty and terror over many parts of the land, he has sought and obtained in 1585 a decree for a fur­ ther restraint on the press, we are not surprised that under such a regime the sacred enclosure of the weekly rest should in that year be threatened with invasion, and a worthy man called to account for urging obedience to the sabbatic law of his country.1 Nothing, indeed, came of the interference, but it showed how mat­ ters, under a growing intolerance, were tending. The case is thus stated by N e a l T h e Rev. Mr. Smith, M.A., in his sermon of Tunbridge, beyond the fact, that he published a variety of other pieces, chiefly translations of portions of the writings of Bullinger, Beza, etc., under the character, in some instances, of “ minister” as well as schoolmaster, and dating the preface to the first-mentioned, “ Zurich, 1556,” from which it might be supposed that he was then an exile. The work before us is dedicated to “ Lady Pelham,” a daughter-in-law of Sir N. Pelham, “ a learned man and a favourer of the Reformation.” We might conjecture that Stockwood was one of the men who, in those times of “ sore travail," was driven from the profession of a minister to that of a teacher. 1 This decree-the third instance in which the liberty of the press was abridged in this reign, each successive one worse than the preceding—restricted printing-presses to Lon- don and the two Universities, and ordered that no book should be printed against any of the laws m being, or any of the Queen’s injunctions—that no new presses should be set up but by license from the Archbishop, or Bishop of London for the time being and that no person should print any book unless first allowed according to the foresaid in- junctmns, and seen and perused by one of these prelates or their chaplains.-Stiype’s Whxtgift, p. 223. The press was thus “ in the hands of the Archbishop, who took all possible care to stifle the writings of the Puritans, while he gave license to Ascanio, an alian merchant and bookseller in London, to import what Popish books he thought fit, Z Z , S V6ry. °,dA pretenCe’ that the adversaries’ arguments being better known by karned men might be more easily confuted. ” The Puritans, however, found ways and propagate their writings and expose the severity of their ad- ” t . S°“ e °,f them purchase(1 a Private press in 1589, and carried it from one Z r l l an°H f ° Prevent discovery. Satirical pamphlets, answered with equal b u t Z f .’ T T 1 and W6re dispersed over the kmgdom, till the press being dis- coveied mid seized, some of its supporters were “ deeply fined,” and others were put to death.-Neal, vol. i. pp. 463, 4 8 2, 503, 5 07. 4 6 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. before the University, of Cambridge, the first Sunday in Lent, maintained the unlawfulness of these plays”— plays on the even­ ings, and sometimes in the afternoons of Lord’s Days— “ for which he was summoned before the Vice-Chancellor, and upon examina­ tion offered to prove, that the Christian Sabbath ought to be observed by an abstinence from all worldly business, and spent in works of piety and charity; though he did not apprehend we were bound to the strictness of the Jewish precepts. The Parlia­ ment had taken this matter into consideration, and passed a bill for the better and more reverent observation of the Sabbath, which the Speaker recommended to the Queen in an elegant speech; but her Majesty refused to pass it, under the pretence of not suffering the Parliament to meddle with matters of religion, which was her prerogative. However, the thing appeared so reasonable, that, without the assistance of a law, the religious observation of the Sabbath grew into esteem with all sober persons, and after a few years became the distinguishing mark of a Puritan.” 1 If such a case as that of Smith was rare in this reign, not less so the necessity of defending the institution against an attack made on it through the press. This necessity arose in 1582, when the Rhemes New Testament appeared. The individuals who wrote and printed this book at Eheims, and the Old Testament at Douay in 1609, were four exiled Englishmen and Romanists, William Allyn, afterwards Cardinal, Gregory Martin, Richard Bristow, authors of the translation, and Thomas Worthington, writer of the notes. The whole was designed for the Roman Catholics in England, from whom it was seen that the Bible could no longer be withheld, and yet whom, as was also seen, it would be fatal to a bolstered-up system to trust with the Bible in a true and unglossed version. A work in which, by false renderings of the text, and a mass of sophistical notes, a portion of the Word of God was wrested in support of Popery, was conceived to demand a reply. Many, in­ cluding Dr. Fulke, concurred with Beza in pointing to Cartwright as the fittest man to write it, and petitioned him to undertake the task. He had yielded to their importunities; but Whitgift, hold­ ing him to be too much of a Puritan, “ forbade him to proceed,” and recommended for the service Dr. Fulke, who published a con- i Neal, vol. i. pp. 404, 465.—For a life of Smith (Smyth), see Brook’s Puritan*, ENGLAND. 6 3 futation in 1589. “ A View of the Marginal Notes in the Popish Testament,” by Dr. George Withers, appeared in 1588. Cart­ wright proceeded with his work, which was published in 1618, fifteen years after his death, and though closing with Rev. xvii., was, according to Puller, “ so complete a refutation, that the Rhemists durst never answer it.” Among the errors of the Rhemes New Testament were its sabbatic opinions. In the re­ marks on Rev. i. 10, the annotator declares, that the apostles and the faithful abrogated the Sabbath of the seventh day, and made the eighth day in count from the creation holy day in its place, and this without all Scriptures or commandment of Christ • and that if the Church had authority and inspiration to make Sunday (being a week-day before) an everlasting holy day, and the Satur­ day, that was before a holy day, now a commoh work-day, the same Church may prescribe and appoint the other holy feasts of Easter, Whitsuntide, Christmas, and the rest. No proofs are given of these statements and assumptions, and it is, therefore, sufficient to meet them with the following counter-assertions of Dr. Fulke :— “ That the Lord’s Day was sanctified instead of the Jewish Saboth, for the assemblies of the faithful to the public exercises of religion, we learn by this place. But that there were any other holy days beside this, we find not in the Scriptures. The apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Saboth, but Christ him­ self by His death, as He did all other ceremonies of the law that were figures and shadows of things to come, whereof He was the body, and they were fulfilled and accomplished in Him and by Him. And this the apostles knew, both by the Scriptures, and by the word of Christ, and by his Holy Spirit. By the Scripture also they knew, that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever, during the world, as consecrated and hallowed to the public exercises of the religion of God, although the ceremonial rest and prescript-day, according to the law, were abrogated by the death of Christ. Now for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven, they had without doubt, either the express commandment of Christ before His ascension, when He gave the precepts concerning the kingdom of God, and the ordering and government of the Church (Acts i. 2), or elfe the certain direction of His Spirit, that it was His tvill and pleasure it should be so. 6 4 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. and that, also, according to the Scriptures. . . . To change the Lord’s Day, and keep it on Monday, Tuesday, or any other day, the Church hath no authority. For it is not a matter of indiffer- ency, but a necessary prescription of Christ himself delivered to us by His apostles.” 1 It has been observed respecting the learned and voluminous writings of this author, that they are “ monuments of his industry and love of study, and furnish satisfactory evidence, that among contemporary scholars none surpassed him in erudition, in a gram­ matical and deep acquaintance with the learned tongues, in acute­ ness and closeness of reasoning, and vigorous and untiring energy in supporting the bulwarks,” and it ought to be added, in labouring for the reformation “ of the Church of England.”2 Dr. William Fulke (died 15&9) was born in London, educated in St. John’s College, Cambridge, of which he was chosen Fellow in 1564, expelled for his intimacy with Cartwright and suspected puritan- ism, presented successively to the rectories of Wesley and Den- nington, and after accompanying the Earl of Lincoln on his embassy to the Court of France, appointed to the mastership of Pembroke Hall, where he found leisure for his literary labours. The excellent and laborious Perkins had repeatedly appeared as an author before the year 1591, but in that year he published— A Golden Chain ; or the Description of Theology, where, in a chapter on the Fourth Commandment, he for the first time treated of the sabbatic institution. The views there expressed, and after­ wards repeated with more or less amplification in his Cases of Conscience, and in his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Gala­ tians, and the first three chapters of the Revelation, though affirmed with diffidence, are substantially the same as those of Hooper, of the Homilies, of Babington, and Fulke. It appears, that previously to their publication in print, they had been pro­ pagated by written, as they had been by his oral, words. Zealous hearers took them down from his lips, and their notes were widely circulated. It is not unlikely that the shackled state of the press would promote, if it did not suggest, the practice. In 1 The Text of the New Testament, etc. (1601), on Rev. i. 10. s Biographical Account in Defence of English Translations of the Scriptwres. Park. Soo edition. ENGLAND. 6 5 this way the preacher had his sentiments conveyed from Cam­ bridge to Dublin, and contributed to form the character of one of the most remarkable men in the following century. About 1590, when Ussher was only ten years of age, “ his meeting with some notes taken from famous Mr. Perkins (his works being not then printed), concerning the sanctification of the Lord’s Day, proved, through God’s blessing, so effectual with him that ever after he was the more strict in the observing of it.” 1 The discourses of Greenham seem to have been turned to account after the same fashion. For the editor of his collected works (1599) informs us in the preface, “ that then”— the time of the author’s death, which took place in 1591— “ his works were dispersed far and near \ and states, at p. 228 of the volume, that his Treatise of the Sabboth “ hath been in many hands for many years, and hath given light to some.” Richard Greenham (1531-1591), M.A., minister for twenty-two years at Dry Drayton, and for two years at Christ Church, London, where he died of the plague, and William Perkins (1558-1602), for the most part of his brief life minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Cambridge, had much in common. Alumni and fellows of colleges in the University of Cambridge, they became distinguished as fervent preachers, laborious ministers, ex­ cellent casuists, earnest friends and advocates from pulpit and press of the Lord’s Day, Puritans who suffered at the hands of Whitgift •—the former suspension, the latter deprivation— for their opinions, wise, blameless, and pious men, and instruments of largely promot­ ing the interests of evangelical truth and practical religion. Among the circumstances which peculiarly marked the course of Perkins were his extraordinary conversion,2 his successful zeal for the good of the prisoners in Cambridge jail, the European fame of his writings, written in elegant Latin, or translated into five of the continental languages, and the credit, not only of a style pro­ nounced the best of his own and the following age, but of being the first, according to Mosheim, to give form, accuracy, and pre­ cision to the master-science which has virtue, life, and manners, 1 Clark’s Collection of Lives (1662), p. 191. a While leading a profane and dissolute life at college, he heard a woman say to a troublesome child < Hold your peace, or I will give you to drunken Perkins, yonder.’ ihe thought that his name was a hye-word for an intemperate man went to his heart, and was the means of rousing him to break the fetters of vice. V 66 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. for its object.1 The end of Perkins, as of Greenham, was peace. The death of the latter was “ most comfortable and happy.” The former expired crying for mercy and forgiveness, and thus again blessed that great and good archbishop, who, having often wished that he might die the death of holy Mr. Perkins, poured out his latest breath in the words, “ Lord, especially forgive my sins of omission.” We have now come to the commencement of the earliest sab­ batic contest, entitled to the name, in the Christian Church. The occasion of this intestine war was the publication, in 1595, of The Doctrine of the Sabbath, plainely layde forth and soundly proved, etc. : by Nicholas Bownd, D.D., a treatise in which the institution, for the first time probably, received a full and satis­ factory consideration. Of the author little has been recorded. Educated at Cambridge, where he took his degrees, he became minister of Norton in Suffolk, and was one of sixty, who, in 1583, were suspended from the exercise of sacred functions for refusing to subscribe Whitgift’s three Articles, which declared : 1. That the Queen was supreme head of the Church ; 2. That the Ordinal and the Book of Common Prayer contained nothing contrary to the Word of God ; and, 3. That the Thirty-nine Ar­ ticles of the Church of England were to be admitted as agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.2 Besides The Doctrine of the Sabbath, which, after being “ perused” and enlarged, was reprinted in 1606, he published three works, according to Wood, who adds, “ with other things which I have not seen.”3 His literary labours ap­ pear to have been all carried on at Norton, and to warrant the 1 History (1825), voL iv. pp. 412,413.—Orton, who was descended from an elder brother of Perkins, says, in 1772 (Practical Works, voL ii. p. 434): “ His works are little known in England, but they are still in estimation in Germany.” The three volumes folio might be seen in the libraries of some Scottish ministers half a century ago, and the writer once found them in the hands of a plain though somewhat jein Scotsman, who read and re­ lished them not the less that they presented the truths of the Bible in a manner some­ what different from that of the more familiar works of Owen and Boston. 3 By the 13th Elizabeth, the subscription of the clergy was limited to those Articles of the Church which related to the doctrines of faith and the administiation of the sa­ craments, whereas Whitgift’s Articles enjoined subscription to the whole thirty-nine, ana were otherwise illegal and oppressive. 8 The three works are—The Holy Exercise of Fasting, etc., in certain Homilies or Sermons (1804). A. Storehouse of Comfort for the afflicted in Spirit, set open in Twenty- one Sermons (1C04); and, The Unbelief of Thomas the Apostle, laid open for Believers, etc. (1608). ENGLAND. 67 presumption that he had been permitted to resume the exercise of his ministry there. Dr. Bownd’s treatise on the Sabbath was regarded with so much favour and dislike by different classes, and produced so great a change in the sabbatic practice of. Englishmen in his time, as to entitle its doctrines and history to more notice than they have of late received. The positions which the writer copiously and learnedly main­ tains from Scripture, the Fathers, and Reformers, are the follow­ ing — The observation of the Sabbath is not a bare ordinance of man, or a merely civil or ecclesiastical constitution, appointed only for polity, but an immortal commandment of Almighty God, and therefore bindeth men’s consciences. The Sabbath was given to our first parents, and so after carefully observed both by them and by their posterity. It was revived on Mount Sinai.by God’s own voice to the Israelites, with a special note of remembrance, fortified with more reasons than the other precepts, and particularly applied to all sorts of men by name, showing how careful the Lord was, that every one should straitly keep it. While the ceremonies of the law, which made a difference be­ tween Jew and Gentile, are taken away by the gospel, this com­ mandment of the Sabbath abideth still in full force as moral and perpetual, and bindeth for ever all nations and sorts of men as before. The apostles, by the direction of God’s Spirit, changed the day from the seventh to the eighth, which we now keep in honour of Redemption, and which ought still to be kept of all nations to the world’s end, because we can never have the like cause or direction to change it. On this day we are bound straitly to rest from all the ordinary works of our calling, because six days in the week are appointed for them, and the seventh is sanctified and separated by God him­ self from the others to another end— the public service of God. Much more ought we on that day to avoid every kind of law­ ful recreations and pastimes, which are less necessary than the works of our callings, and whatever withdraws the heart from God s service, because this law is spiritual, and binds the Whole 68 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. man as well as any other ; most of all ought we to renounce all such things as are not lawful at any time.1 Works of necessity and mercy, however, are excepted from this prohibition, and the governors of the church and commonwealth have a liberty above others, to perform such works for the good of both, in which, as in other things, their reasons are not to be busily scanned.2 The day of rest ought to be spent altogether in God’s service, partly in frequenting the public assemblies, where the Word of God is plainly read and purely preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and prayer made in a known tongue to the edifying of the people, and in attending upon these things from the begin­ ning to the ending ; and partly in those private exercises which prepare for or promote the benefit of public worship, as private prayer, reading the Scriptures, singing of psalms, meditating or conferring about the word and works of God, and this either personally in the family or with neighbours, either in houses or abroad in the fields. Masters, magistrates, and princes, ought especially to provide in their respective spheres for the observation of this command­ ment, and to compel those under their charge to at least an out­ ward rest and its sanctification, as well as to the keeping of any other commandment, such as those against murder, adultery, theft, and such like. We must aim at perfection here, not measuring our duty by our inability, but by the perfect reed of the temple, and, repent­ ing of our failures, crave pardon for Christ’s sake. 1 “ In determining that we must give over then our ordinary recreations, we do not conclude that they should altogether be left, but advise men rather to take them at some other tim e; and we do exhort them that be in government, to give some time to their children and servants for their honest recreation on other days, that they be not driven to take it upon this, seeing they can no more want it altogether than their ordinary food. And as we have seen that they are bound to give them some time to work for themselves, unless they will by their overmuch straitness compel them to it upon the day of te s t; so must they spare also some few hours for their refreshing now and then, seeing they can no more want the one than the other.”—Pp. 271, 272. a “ Necessitas non habet ferias.”—This “ is to be considered of us the rather, lest any through a gross superstition should fall into the extremity of the Jews of whom it is written, and namely, of certain heretics called Essaei, that they are over pre­ cise in this rest, so that they dress all their meat the day before, and kindle no fire,*’ etc.—P. 223. ENGLAND. 69 The treatise on its first appearance, produced an extraordinary sensation, which Fuller thus describes :— “ About this time (1595), throughout England began the more solemn and strict observation of the Lord’s Day (hereafter, both in writing and preaching, commonly called the Sabbath), occasioned by a book this year set forth by one P. (sic) Bound, Doctor of Divinity, $ (and enlarged with additions, anno 1606).” 1 After giving an ‘ abstract of its doctrines, the historian proceeds to say :— “ It is almost incredible how taking this doctrine was, partly because of its own purity, and partly for the eminent piety of such persons as maintained it, so that the Lord’s Day, especially in corpora­ tions, began to be precisely kept, people becoming a law to themselves, forbearing such sports as yet by statute permitted ; yea, many rejoicing at their own restraint herein. On this day the stoutest fencer laid down the buckler, the most skilful archer unbent his bow, counting all shooting besides the mark ; May-games, and Morish-dances grew out of request, and good reason that bells should be silenced from gingling about men’s legs, if their very ringing in steeples were adjudged unlawful ;2 some of them were ashamed of their former pleasures, like chil­ dren which, grown bigger, blushing themselves out of their rattles and whistles. Others forbear them for fear of their superiors, and many left them off out of a politic compliance, lest otherwise they should be accounted licentious. “ Yet learned men were much divided in their judgments about these Sabbatarian doctrines. Some embraced them as ancient, truths consonant to Scripture, long disused and neglected, now seasonably revived for the increase of piety. Others conceived them grounded on a wrong bottom, but because they tended to the manifest advance of religion, it was pity to oppose them, seeing none have just reason to complain being deceived into their own good. But a third sort flatly fell out with these posi­ tions, as galling men’s necks with a Jewish yoke, against the V Veteris Novi Testamenti, or the True Doctrine of the Salbath before and under the Law, and in the time of the Gospel, Ac.” a Fuller exaggerates the claims of Bownd to originality. The word “ Sabbath ” had been used by the Fathers, in the Homilies, by Becon, Babington, Perkins, and others. Am°nf ‘“Junctions of Edward vi. was the fo llo w in g “ All ringing of bells, save one, shall be utterly forborn.M 4* N 70 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. liberty of Christians : that Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, had removed the rigour thereof, and allowed men lawful recreations : that the doctrine put an unequal lustre on the Sunday, on set purpose to eclipse all other holy days to the derogation of the Church : that the strict observance was set up out of faction to be a character of difference, to brand all for libertines who did not entertain it.” For a time no attempt was made to put down this stirring publication, whether by argument or by authority. “ For some years together,” continues Fuller, “ Dr. Bound alone carried the garland away, none offering openly to oppose, and not so much as a feather of a quill in print did wag against him. Yet, as he in his second edition observeth, many, both in their preachings, writ­ ings, .and disputations, did concur with him h^that argument. Among the “ many ” were Babington, Perkfll^nd Dod. An edition of the works of Babington appeared in 1596. Perkins reprinted his Golden Chain in 1597. Both writers continued to maintain the sabbatic views which, before the publication of Bownd’s treatise, they had given to the world, and which were in substance the same as his. An Exposition of the Ten Command­ ments by John Dod, minister at Hanwell, Oxfordshire, aided, as he was in other works, by Robert Cleaver, minister at Drayton in the same county, belonged to the year 1604, and treated copiously and practically of the Sabbath. The exposition is simple, lively, pithy, and worthy of both, Cleaver having been “ a most pious, excellent, and useful preacher,” and Dod, not only “ a distinguished scholar,” but “ a most worthy man,” of whom TJssher said, “ What­ ever some say of Mr. Dod’s strictness, and scrupling some ceremo­ nies, I desire, that when I die, my soul may rest with his.” In the second edition of his work, Bownd refers to a writer who had published a digest of the first edition. This, or An Abstract of the Doctrine of the Sabbath, by William Burton, had preceded the volume in which it is referred to, only by some months, as they both came out in 1606. It appears that “ disputations” had taken place, in which the doctrine of Bownd was successfully ad­ vocated. One of these is repeatedly mentioned by writers of the time. Heylyn evidently felt sore when he thus recorded it :— “ In the year 1603, at the commencement held in Cambridge, ENGLAND. 71 this thesis or proposition, Dies Dominicus nititur Verbo Dei, was publicly maintained by a doctor there, and by the then Vice-Chan­ cellor so determined; neither the following doctors there, or any in the other University, that I can hear of, did ever put up any anti­ thesis in opposition thereunto.”1 Three supporters of Dr. Bownd’s doctrine are particularly alluded to by him in the preface to the second edition of his work. After informing us that many concurred with him in his argument, he says, “ And three several profitable treatises were within a few years successively written by three godly learned' ministers.” One of these treatises, according to Fuller, was “ made by Greenham.” Another was probably the plain and practical Doctrine of the Sab­ bath, handled in Four Severall Bookes or Treatises, by George Widley, A.M., Minister of the Word of God in Portsmouth,” w liich maintains the perpetuity of the Sabbath, as well as the sanc­ tity of the entire day, and was published in 1604. We find no third publication that fully answers Bownd’s description. The treatise of Greenham was extensively read, and productive of much good. It had, as already stated, been in many hands for many years before it appeared among his collected works, and these passed through five editions in the course of 1599-1612, two of them in the first of those years. « No book,” says Fuller’ “ made a greater impression upon the minds of the people than his Treatise on the Sabbath, which greatly promoted the observ­ ance of it through the nation.” Partaking of the qualities that distinguish all the writings of its author, the comprehensive brevity with which each topic is treated, great simplicity of language clothing not uufrequently original and striking thoughts, and a spirit ol unaffected piety and benevolence, it presents, within some ninety small pages, the very pith of the subject as regards its doc­ trine, polemics, and duties. It has almost nothing of the patristic learning which appears in the volume of Dr. Bownd, as, except in one or two instances, it derives the support of its positions ex­ clusively from the Scriptures. Nor does it exhibit the same power of reasoning as that writer has wielded. But it surpasses the volume now mentioned, as appears to us, in its more faultless ex­ position of the sabbatic institution. 1 History of the Sttlbath, part ii. p. 261. 72 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. There is scope for persons of all varieties of attainment to put forth their efforts in defence or recommendation of that institution. But if any class be more entitled and qualified than another to handle the subject, it must be the men who, to superior mental talents and acquirements, add a spirit imbued with the heavenly tastes and desires of the Christian. Such a man was Greenham. “ He was,” says Fuller, “ a strict observer of the Lord’s Day.” It is also recorded of him, that “ he loved the habitation of God’s house,” repairing to it however inferior might be the abilities of the preacher, and happy, like Chalmers, to hear those “ intrinsic­ ally glorious and imperishable truths of the Christian system, which,” as has been beautifully said, “ language cannot embellish, nor the little arts of composition improve.” It is such men alone who can fully perceive the excellence and value of the Sabbath. And the words of such come with power. In some measure' like their Master, they might say, “ We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” Their united experience is an argu­ ment for the institution which admits of no answer. Their mani­ fest character— an epistle which may be seen and read of all men — is another. Let the life of Greenham show that a strictly ob­ served Lord’s Day, though repulsive to the selfish and the self- indulgent, tends to encourage, not sourness, gloom, or unhappiness, but decision with meekness, labour with its dignity, beneficence with its pure pleasures, and faith in Christ with its safety and hope— the whole making a man good, useful, and blessed. Bear­ ing in mind the particulars of that life already mentioned, let us consider some others. Every morning found that ardent man in his study at four o’clock. The preaching of six sermons, with two catechetical exercises, formed his ministerial labour in public each week, the services of the work-days being, for the convenience of his people, in the mornings. Much of his time and strength was expended in giving religious instruction and counsel in private to the multitudes who resorted to him with their difficulties and doubts, and in unwearied applications for stipends and exhibitions for the assistance of poor scholars at the University.1 Rejecting every lucrative preferment offered to him, he yet abounded in acts of liberality to the needy and distressed, showing a pity for the 1 Russell’s Memorials of Thomas Fuller, D.D., p. 14. ENGLAND. 73 suffering, which, bringing by its resistless impulses himself and his family into frequent straits, it is far easier to condemn for im­ prudent excess, than to admire for its rare intensity. Nothing could make him subscribe to the rites and ceremonies which the prelates in his day so unjustly enforced, as they were in his view unsanctioned by Scripture, productive of much superstition, and hindrances to the success of the gospel; but while he “ loved the truth,” he loved also “ the peace,” and combined the suaviter with the fortiter— the meekness of wisdom with inflexibility of prin­ ciple and purpose. When called before the bishop, Dr. Cox, upon a complaint of his nonconformity, and asked, Whether the blame of the schism in the Church was attachable to the conformists or nonconformists 1 he replied, “ that it might be attached to either or to neither. For if both parties loved each other as they ought, and did acts of kindness for each other, thereby maintaining love and concord, the blame would be on neither side j but which party soever made the rent, the charge of schism belonged to them.” The bishop is said to have been so well satisfied with this answer, that he dismissed him in peace.1 Greenham was much esteemed and reverenced in his lifetime by the wise and good of various ranks. He died lamented. Bishops Hall and Wilkins, and others, have expressed high estimates of his works. From a number of tributes to his worth as a man and a writer, which appear in his' collected works, we may be permitted, if not for their poetical merit, yet on account of their subject and their author, to present the following lines Whiles Greenham writeth of the Sabboth’s rest, His soul enjoys that which his pen exprest: His work enjoys not what itself doth say, For it shall never find one resting day; A thousand hands shall toss each page and line, Which shall be scanned by a thousand eyne. That Sabboth’s rest, or this Sabboth’s unrest, Hard is to say whether is the happiest.—I. Hall.8 1 Brook’s Puritans, vol. i. pp. 416, 417. To this work, with Fuller’s Ch. Hist and Greenham’s Works (1599), we are indebted for most of the particulars relative to Green­ ham, in this and preceding pages. 2 Fuller, in citing the lines, says, “ as one (then a great wit in the University, now a grave wisdom in our Church) hath ingeniously expressed.” The I. Hall must have 74 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Thus far, and even down to the year 1605, the argument is all on one side, and not till 1599 was any opposition publicly made to the views of Dr. Bownd. In that year, however, his treatise, according to Thomas Rogers of Hominger, or Homing- sheath, was called in. Rogers himself, not long before a cashiered Puritan, confesses, and glories in the fact, that he turned Queen’s evidence against his former friend. “ It is a comfort unto my soul,” he says, in addressing Archbishop Bancroft, “ and will be till my dying hour, that I have been the man and the means that the Sabbatarian errors and impieties are brought into light and knowledge of the State, whereby whatsoever else, sure I am, this good hath ensued, namely, that the said books of the Sabbath . . . . hath been both called in, and forbidden any more to be printed and made common. Your Grace’s predecessor, Archbishop White- gift, by his letters, and officers at synods, and visitations, Ann. 99, did the one ; and Sir John Popham, Lord Chief-Justice of England, at Burie S, Edmonds, in Suffolk, Ann. 1600, did the other.” 1 Dr. Twisse questions these allegations, as there was no evidence of their truth but the word of Rogers, and as, in the year after they were published, Willet’s Commentary on Genesis appeared, dedicated to King James and to Bancroft, under whose auspices it was undertaken, and highly commending as well as fully adopt­ ing the sentiments of Bownd.2 There is, indeed, nothing in the second edition of the book to imply the alleged treatment of the first, and the manner in which the author writes of the Chief-Justice appears to be inconsistent with the representation of Rogers. He mentions “ the very rare and honourable example” of that individual, in “ resting for the most part on the Sabbath in his circuit journeys,” which he does not utter in flattery, “ see­ ing that it is like that these shall never come into his hands and eyes;” and adds, that he “ travaileth so much the more early and late, and taketh up part of the night, that by extraordinary labouring upon other daies, hee might redeem the time to rest upon the Sabbath.”3 And yet both Heylyn and Fuller credit the been Joseph Hall, afterwards the celebrated Bishop of Norwich, and author of the “ Contemplations.”—ch. Hist. vol. ix. p. 220. 1 Preface, sect. 23 (written “ the 11 of March 1607 ”), tc Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England, 1625. 2 Morality of the Fourth Commandment, pp. 164-166. 8 Bownd’s Sabbatum (2d edit. 1606), p. 231. ENGLAND. 75 statement of Rogers, the former acknowledging that the measures of Whitgift and Popham were « good remedies, had they been soone inough applied,” but lamenting « that they were not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow, in the aforesaid towne of Burie, for publishing the bookes of Browne against the service of the Church.” 1 Nor do we find that Neal, or any other writer, vindicates, or even notices, the doubts of Twisse. Certain it is, that in confessing to his having called the attention of the authorities to what he desig­ nates “ Sabbath speculations,” Rogers asserted for himself the unenviable distinction of being both the first of professed Chris­ tians to employ measufes of violence against the friends of the Lord’s Day, and the originator, Bownd being only the occasion, of the earliest sabbatic controversy within the pale of the Christian Church. We have referred the commencement of the dialectic controversy to a .d. 1605, because, though it was not till 1607 that a blow ' of this kind was struck with any effect against the institution, the former year was the date of the first anti-sabbatical publication. This was a treatise,2 dedicated to King James, which maintained that the Sabbath is partly ceremonial and partly moral— that it was not of primaeval origin— that the Church was led by certain causes and reasons to substitute the first day of the week in place of the seventh as a Sabbath— that all days in Christian times are not Sabbath days, and that the Sabbath should be sacredly ob­ served in rest of body and mind, and in doing good, the whole suffused with joy and the pleasures of music and sports. Although he turns his weapons against the Puritans under the general de­ signation of Reformers, the author condescends to mention the name of no previous writer of his time, and he himself has been very seldom referred to by his successors. Rivet bestows two or three remarks on his views, and Heylyn, commending “ one M. Loe of the Church of Exeter,” as alone “ declaring himself to be of different judgment from” the Sabbatarians, and as “ laying downe, indeed, the truest and most justifiable doctrine of the Sab- 1 History of the Sabbath, part ii. p. 254. 2 Effigiatio Veri Sabbathisimi. Authore Roberto Loeo, Exoniensis Ecclesise.Thesaa rario, 4to, Lond. 1605. 76 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. bath of any writer in that time, * complains that the treatise, “ being written in the Latine tongue, came not to the people’s hands, many of those which understood it never meaning to let the people know the contents thereof.” 1 A failure as to popular effect, the work was not lost upon the learned King and Laud, and was a fitting precursor of the Book of Sports. Fuller, “ ignoring” Mr. Loe, observes, “ The first that gave a check to the full speed of this” (Bownd’s) “ doctrine, was Thomas Rogers of Horninger, in Suffolk, in his preface to the Book of Articles.” Rogers had published several editions of his Exposi­ tion of the Thirty-nine Articles, from 1579 downwards. In 1607, as we have seen, he wrote the Preface to which Fuller refers, and it appears in additions of the Exposition printed subsequently to that year. In this Preface he made his first attempt, as a disput­ ant, to controvert the doctrine which, in the capacity of informer, he had already fruitlessly sought to extirpate. In the Ejjigiatio there is argument, in “ the Preface” there is none. "VVe wonder what there was in the latter to “ check the speed” of the opposite doctrine, till we recollect that strong assertion stands frequently with certain minds for proof. A few words may suffice to tell the amount of what Rogers has to advance against the Puritans, or brethren, as he terms them, on the subject of their “ Sabbata­ rian errors and impieties.” Discomfited in the matter of the cere­ monies, they adopted the stratagem of holding up the Sabbath at the expense of the holidays, whence sprang irreligion and every evil. They set up a new idol, their St. Sabbath (erst in the days of Popish blindness, St. Sunday) in the midst and minds of God’s people, thereby introducing a worse than either Jewish or Popish superstition into the laud. Their insisting on a rigid observance of the Lord’s Day by all classes, if they would not incur the penalties of damnation, led to such heretical and horrible state­ ments, as that to throw a bowl on the Sabbath-day is as great a sin as to kill a man, or commit adultery; and that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lord’s Day is as great a sin as for a father to take a knife and cut his child’s throat; and that in the Sabbatum “ are very many things to this effect.” The reply of Dr. Twisse to these accusations, advanced by Rogers, and 1 Hist, of the Sabbath, part ii. p 261. ENGLAND. 77 endorsed by Heylyn, was the following : First, the sabbatic doc­ trine of Dr. Bownd was that of Perkins, Bishop Babington, Bishop Andrewes, Bishop Lake, Dr. Willet, as is shown by their own words. Dr. Willet is quoted as taking up the sentiments of Bownd, establishing them one by one from Scripture, and adding, “ But these allegations are here superfluous, seeing there is a learned treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument, which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath, as it is said in the former positions, which shall be able to abide the triad of the Word of God, and stand warranted thereby, when other humane fantasies shall vanish ; howsoever, some in their heat and intemperance are not afraid to call them sabbatariorum errores, yea, hereticall assertions, a new Jubilee, St. Sabbath, more than either Jewish or Popish institution ; God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write, and God give them a better minde.”1 “ Now I have made it manifest,” says Twisse, “ that the doctrines which he picks out of Dr. Bownd, and stiles Sabba­ tarian doctrines, are the doctrines of Dr. Andrewes, afterwards bishop of Winchester ; I could show them to be the doctrines of many other worthy prelates that have been of this kingdome ; and it may be, that if the votes of the bishops of this kingdom were taken, the major part would concurre with us, as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath, rather than against us.”2 This answer was important, not because names can prove a doctrine to be true, but because in the present instance they set aside the silly though plausible argument, founded on the puritanic character of the men who had stood up for the Sabbath, and on the alleged singularity of their opinions. Second, the allegation as to the “ heretical and' horrible” assertions uttered by the supporters of Eownd’s doctrine, referring as it does only to a few cases, could prove no­ thing even if true, and was itself without proof. Dr. Twisse says, generally, of such charges, which it became the fashion of anti- sabbatists to take up without inquiry, and to trumpet on all occa­ sions, “ As long as the world lasts, we shall be exercised with wild wits, and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and, ex­ amining those charges more particularly, he shows that the alleged 1 Comment, on Gen. ii. 3, in Twisse’s Morality of the Fourth Commandment, p. 166. » Twisse, p. 164. 78 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. expressions are, in two instances, accompanied by no particulars of person or place, the imputations having no better authority than the accuser’s own word ; and that in cases where the parti­ culars were specified, either the evidence was wanting, or the false­ hood of the accusation was exposed. While it is possible, without at all affecting the doctrine of the Puritans, that an individual or two might use improper expressions in its illustration, it is certain that no such impropriety was proved, and it is more than probable that all the charges were, like the following one preferred against the Doctor himself, wretched fabrications in a kindred cause : “ Lately, it hath beene brought unto mee, that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe, that I should say, David sinned more in dancing about the Arke, than either in deflowring Bathshebath,-or killing Uriah ; though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts, how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgment upon the comparison.”1 Third, the averment, that “ many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine, printed at London for I. Porter, and T. Man (An. 95),” was, like the other charges, unsubstantiated. Twisse says, “ What this bookewas I could not devise,but lately have gotten Dr. Bownde’s book of the Sabbath. I finde by com­ paring it well, that this is the booke he girds at. Now I finde nothing in him to this effect, though I have gone over most of the first booke, and in the Index doe not finde anything that can give me probability in the second booke, tending to any such effect : and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found, nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations (than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print) and thereby to cleare himself from the suspicion of a malig­ nant.” 2 The truth is, that “ the many things to this effect, which he (Rogers) had read” in the Sabbatum were not there.3 Dr. Twisse having extracted the sting of the only effective part of the Preface, its tale-telling, conceived it superfluous, we pre­ sume, to answer any more charges against the friends of the Sab- 1 Morality of the Fourth Commandment, pp. 162-164. 2 Ibid. p. 163. 8 If they had, we should have heard of it from Heylyn, who repeats from Rogers “ the horrible” expressions con amore, but neither affirms nor denies the occurrence of “ many things to this effect” in Bownd. We have read the Sabbatum, 2d edit., more than once, without observing in it any such expressions. ENGLAND. 79 bath, founded as these charges were on mere authority, and on such an authority. So slight, indeed, appears to have been the impression produced by the assertions of Rogers, that it was not till thirty-four years after they were published, and when Bishop White and Dr. Heylyn had, by their writings, given them cur­ rency and importance, that Twisse took notice of them. Let Puller illustrate “the check to the full speed of Bound’s doctrine” which he ascribes to the Preface, and show that the author in evoking the magistrate’s sword from its sheath, as well as “ wag­ ging the feather of a quill,” had increased the momentum. “ But though minister and magistrate jointly endeavoured to suppress Bound’s book, with the doctrine therein contained, yet all their care did but for the present make the Sunday set in a cloud, to arise soon after in more brightness. As for. the archbishop, his known opposition to the proceedings of the brethren rendered his actions more odious, as if out of enwy he had caused such a pearl to be concealed. As for Judge Popham, though some conceived it most proper for his place to punish felonious doctrines (which robbed the Queen’s subjects of their lawful liberty), and to behold them branded with a mark of infamy, yet others accounted him no competent judge in this controversy; and though he had a dead hand against offenders, yet these Sabbatarian doctrines, though condemned by him, took the privilege to pardon them­ selves, and were published more generally than before. The price of the doctor’s book began to be doubled, as commonly books are then most called on, when called in, and many who hear not of them when priuted, inquire after them when prohibited; and though the book’s wings were clipped from flying abroad in print, it ran the faster from friend to friend in transcribed copies; and the Lord’s day, in most places, was most strictly observed. The more liberty people were offered the less they used it, refusing to take the free­ dom authority tendered them ; for the vulgar sort have the actions of their superiors in constant jealousy, suspecting each gate of their opening to be a trap, every hole of their digging to be a mine, wherein some secret train is covertly conveyed, to the blowing up of the subject’s liberty, which made them almost afraid of the recreations of the Lord’s day allowed them ; and seeing it is the greatest, pleasure to the mind of man to do what he pleaseih, it 8 0 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. was sport for them to refrain from sports, whilst the forbearance was in themselves voluntary, arbitrary, and elective not imposed upon them. Yea, six years after, Bound’s book came forth with enlargements, publicly sold ; and scarce any comment, catechism, or controversy was set forth by the stricter divines, wherein this doctrine (the diamond in this ring) was not largely pressed and proved ; so that, as one saith, ‘ the Sabbath itself had no rest; for now all strange and unknown writers, without further exami­ nation, passed for friends and favourites of the Presbyterian party, who could give the word, and had anything in their treatise tend­ ing to the strict observation of the Lord’s day.”1 Thus, “ minister and magistrate” became the patrons of Dr. Bownd, and the best publishers of his volume, persecuting both into a notice and influence which they might never otherwise have obtained. And the remarkable success of that volume, which received not merely in several* instances the laudari a laudato the plaudits of the celebrated, but the approbation of many wise and good men unknown to fame, which stimulated and enlightened the zeal of writers and preachers on its great subject, and which effected an extensive improvement in the religious character of the nation, was a gratifying recompense to its author for the reproach and opposition of a few, and for the labour and time expended on its composition.2 Nor has the injury done to his posthumous reputation by such authors as Heylyn, and Collier, who attempted with too much effect to identify his name with all that is stern and repulsive in sabbatic doctrine and practice, been without reparation. That the only consistent, practical, and scriptural theory of the in­ stitution still prevails among the most moral and enterprising classes of England, owing in a great measure to the impulse ori­ ginally communicated by his writings, is a noble tribute to his memory. And other tributes have been paid in occasional vindi­ cations of his treatise against unfounded objections, and more frequently in the advocacy of similar views, by able men. We 1 Fuller's Church History (1845), vol. v. pp. 217-219. 2 The respect which, according to Livingstone (Missionary Travels, Preface), the toil of authorship ought to inspire, was peculiarly merited by Bownd, as, in consequence of the unaccountable disappearance of his completed manuscript, the preparation for the second edition had to be repeated. ENGLAND. 81 have seen that Dr. Twisse— “ the very learned Twisse”— “ this veteran leader, so well trained to the scholastic field,” as Owen describes him, did his part. “ Some say,” observes the erudite Leigh, “ that Dr. Bound was the first who set on foot the Sabba­ tarian doctrines in the Church of England— if so, it was a great honour to him to be the first in so good a work.” 1 Thomas Fuller, a conformist, though not of the Heylyn school, or “ fierce for moderation,” has rendered good and honest service, by recording the triumphs of the treatise, and testifying to the eminent piety of the men who held its doctrines. Another conformist has lately corrected one or two injurious misinterpretations of Bownd in Fuller’s History, and affirmed that the charges of Rogers, which that history recorded, without either confirmation or censure, have no just application to the Sabbatum, which he commends as “ written in a truly Christian spirit.” 2 Its author has been fol­ lowed in his opinions by Twisse, Owen, and a host of others. And we may trust that as the subject is more studied and understood, a larger measure of respect and gratitude will be accorded to one of the boldest and most successful advocates of the sabbatic insti­ tution. . A work by Mr. John Sprint, A.M., which appeared in 1G07, calls for a brief notice. It consists of two parts— Propositions tending to prove the necessary use and Divine authority of thef Lord’s day, and the Practice of the sacred day framed after the rules of Scripture. The views of the author are coincident with those of Bownd, clear, decided, and learnedly maintained. The practical part supplies a defect found in some treatises on the subject, though it perhaps exceeds, like others, in the minuteness of its details. The son of Dr. John Sprint, dean of Bristol, Mr. 1 System of Divinity, p. 1100. 2 Fuller’s Ch. Hist. (1845), edited by Brewer, vol. v. pp. 211-214, 217, notes. Fuller, for example, had represented Bownd as holding, that “ no solemn feasts nor wedding- dinners were to be made on the Lord’s day, with permission, notwithstanding, of the same to lords, knights, and gentlemen of quality ;" whereas he only says that “ the ordinary diet of these classes, which, in comparison, may be called feasts,” is not to be condemned, but exhorts them so to divide the duties of servants as to admit of their attending churches. The nobility of those times kept open table, and required for their large households corresponding provisions. Bownd would have agreed with Dr. Paul llicklethwaite thus far, ‘‘ that persons of quality, who rest from hard labour all the week long, are concerned in conscience to observe the Lord’s day with the greater abstinence from recreations.”—Fuller, Ch. Hist., voL vi. pp. 93, 94. ' F 82 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Sprint was educated in Christ’s Church, Oxford, became minister at Thornbury in Gloucestershire, and was subsequently a popular preacher in London. While in creed a Puritan, regarding im­ posed ceremonies as “ inconveniencies, and the Church’s burdens,” he was of opinion that a minister ought to conform to them under protest, rather than suffer deprivation. Wood says, he was a grave and pious divine, and cut off in the prime of his years when great things were expected from him.1 We have referred to the hopes entertained by the Puritans from the accession of King James VI. to the throne of England. Among these hopes was that of a more generally and strictly ob­ served Sabbath. It was reasonable to suppose that a native and the Sovereign of a country where so much zeal had been evinced in favour of the institution, the man who had spoken out so strongly against the Popish days of Geneva and the English mass, and the author of the BacrtAiKov Aw/jov, which allowed unsupersti- tious and lawful amusements, and cheer, “ alwaies provided that the Sabbaths be kept holy, and no unlawfull pastimes then be used” (p. 52), would be right glad to comply with such a request as that presented in the Millenary petition, which craved, “ That the Lord’s day be not profaned, and the rest upon holidays not so strictly urged.” And though it was not long before his Ma­ jesty disclosed enough to confirm the fears that were blended with the expectations of his best subjects, yet the veiy earliest measures of his reign held out prospects of permanent favour to the sabbatic cause. We refer to his proclamation at Theobald’s, May 7, 1603, the day of his entry into London, against bear and bull baitings, with other disorderly pastimes, being “ frequented, kept, or used any time hereafter upon any Sabbath-day to the procedure of the Hampton Court Conference, January 1604, where Dr. Piainolds, the most learned man of his time, the originator of the present authorized version of the Scriptures, and afterwards one of the translators, having said “ Great is the profanation of the Sabbath-day, and contempt of your Majesty’s proclamation, w’hich I earnestly desire may be reformed,” the “ motion found an unanimous consent;” 2 and to the enactment passed by the 1 Brook’s Puritans, vol. ii. PP- 305, 306; Calamy’s Account, vol. ii. p. 343; Fuller’s Worthies, vol. i. p. 564; Wood’s Athen. Oxon. vol. i. p. 406. 2 Fuller, vol. v. p. 284. ENGLAND. 83 first English Parliament after the Union of the Crowns, held in March of the same year, prohibiting shoemakers from selling the articles of their craft upon Sunday. But the Millenary petition was destined to receive a negative on the subject of the Sabbath as decided, P-UL p- 9 6 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. Walrus, “ the Churches of Zealand were agitated by the con­ tentions of Teellinck and Burs. The former, studious to promote the interests of piety, while aiming at the correction of evil, went to the extreme of rigour in the opposite direction, as they are wont to do who try to straighten crooked timber. In this manner, he sought, in a published treatise, to remedy the profanation of the Sabbath. The son of Burs seized the occasion, and gave to the world the Threnody of the Weeping Church over the fancied vio­ lation of her liberty, attempting to refute Teellinck with regard to the observance of a seventh day, and the institution of the Lord’s day, for which Gomar, sufficiently devoted to the Bursii, had sup­ plied arguments. The friends of Teellinck were aggrieved, and there was a danger that they might break out into rejoinders, and that the Church might be split into parties. Voet had opposed the juvenile production, by which he appeared more to pro­ voke the crocodile tears of the adversaries, less to edify the Church.” 1 The blame imputed by this writer to Teellinck amounted to his holding views which obtained for him, as they have for many others, the name of Sabbatarian, and which a great part of the Christian world have regarded as forming the only consistent and tenable theory of the weekly rest. The work of Yoetius was published in 1627. The title, Lachrymce Crocodili abstersce— The Tears of the Crocodile wiped away, however happily terse and “ telling,” according to the modern demand, in such cases, or however much provoked by the enormity of the occasion, does seem unbecoming the subject and the author, as well as some­ what misapplied, since there was no reason to doubt the sincerity of the tears which were shed by the chief mourner, and which he would naturally conceive would be shed by others, over the threatened calamity of a generally-observed Sabbath.1 2 How far the performance itself wras liable to exception for provoking the complaints of his opponents rather than edifying the Church, we have not the means of judging, not having seen the Lachrymce. But we can speak with some confidence of a chapter from the 1 Walsei Opera, Vita, p. 40. 2 If in this instance of the seria mixta jocis, which the discussions of the times occasionally elicited, there was more of the serious than was pleasant to the one party THE NETHERLANDS. 9 7 same pen, Be Sabbato et Festis,1 which, if betraying “ the deficiency in philosophical precision” ascribed to Yoet by Mosheim, assuredly affords abundant indications of what the same authority accords to him’ “ uncommon application and immense learning.” Gis- bertus Voetius (1589-1676) was born at Heusden in Holland— was a pupil of Arminius and Gomarus at Leyden— became mini­ ster of a church in his native town— was a member of the Synod of Dort, the longest-lived of that distinguished assembly__and, latterly, Professor of the Oriental Languages, and for a time of Theology also, at Utrecht. It is interesting to mark how this ardent combatant of the Cartesian, Cocceian, and other errors of his time, evinced no less ardour in his ministerial duties, preach­ ing at one period eight sermons every week, and resigning one of his professorships, that he might resume his earliest and favourite work. Of his various writings, that by which he is now best known is his Select Theological Disputations, where the curious in Sabbatic and other religious opinions may find ample stores, Amesius (1576-1633), Professor of Theology at Franeker, pub­ lished the first part of his Medulla Theologica, or Marrow of Theology, in 1623. The second part, which appeared along with the other in 1627, contained a chapter on “ The Time of Wor­ ship,” in which the whole doctrine of the Sabbath was briefly and lucidly presented, and the primaeval appointment of the in­ stitution, the Divine authority of its transference from the seventh to the first day of the week, and the entire morality of the Fourth Commandment, were ably maintained. The contents of this work, and of that on Conscience, which latter supplied a - practical supplement to the chapter on the “ Time of Worship” in the Medulla, perfectly harmonize with their avowed object of recalling the attention of the Churches, too much engrossed with or proper for the other the remark applies still more to a pasquinade directed by an ill natured wit against V oet himself during a controversy between him and Maresius— Yoetius odit alit _ fallit defendit adoptat Pacem, dissidium, Patres, absurda, malignos.” To which Paul, son of the lampooned divine, happily retorted thus— “ Voetiusodit alit defendit prodit adoptat Dissidium, pacem, Patres, malefacta, benignos." —Foppen’s Bibliothec. Belgic, tub voce Voet. 1 Select. Disput. P. iii. pp. 1227-1353. G 98 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. doctrinal disputes, to the moral influence and practice of the truth, for which, along with Perkins and Teellinck, his alleged models in the attempt, he has received the praise of Mosheim.1 This good and learned man, the circumstances of whosfc retire­ ment to Holland have been mentioned (p. 25), was a native of Norfolk, and educated at Cambridge under Perkins, to whom he appeared to have owed, by the Divine blessing, his earliest thorough impressions of religion. After being excluded through prelatic influence from his ministry at the Hague, he distinguished himself by a controversy with Grevinchovius, one of the leading remonstrants. We find him attending as a hearer the Synod of Dort, and regularly communicating intelligence of its proceedings to King James’s Ambassador at the Hague. Apprehensive that the climate of Franeker would prove fatal to his constitution, and having a strong desire to preach the gospel to his country­ men, he accepted, in 1632, an invitation to the charge of the English Church at Rotterdam, where he died after a year’s ministry. His works in Latin, of which a complete edition was published at Amsterdam in 1658, are said to have been “ famous over Europe.” Previously to the appearance of the WeeJclag and the Lachrymal, Teellinck had been engaged in preparing his Nootwendig Vertoogh, etc.__A Necessary Demonstration concerning the Present Afflicted State of God's People. The author, on sending a copy of it to Waleeus,\ says, “ I only wish that it may be read with such a heart as is seemly, and then I trust it will produce an effect towards edification You have doubtless seen the Complaint of J. Bursius. I suppose you will not forbear any longer to publish your Treatise on the Sabbath at the first possible opportunity, though such writings, being published rather inconsiderately, would make a bad impression upon the people, and increase the power of sinning. I hope that you, by-the-bye, will declare me to be free from the suspicion which that man insinuates against me, in order to make my service fruitless. You know how D. D. G. has dealt with me. I do not know what the use of cordial friendship and zeal for the innocent is, if it keeps entirely quiet in such cases. But I leave this to your discretion, and will not X In Ecdes. EisU voL iv. pp. 412-414. THE NETHERLANDS. 99 by this, my writing, press you to do anything which you yourself may not deem advisable.”1 In this spirited, and yet not intem­ perate style does Teellinck refer to writers who were combined against' him in a work which we leave it to Udemann, in a letter shortly to be cited, to describe, and of one of whom, his eulogist but six short years before, he might have said, “ And thou, too, Brutus!” After alluding to a circumstance bearing on the in­ terests of the Church, he concludes with the characteristic prayer, “ May the good God grant that we may act purely in these holy matters!” The Nootwendig Vertoogh, after being twice written, and submitted to the examination of the Faculties of Leyden and Franeker, came out in 1627, recommended by the theological professors of both these Universities, those of Leyden intimating that they differed from the author on certain points; and was dedicated to all holding office in the Churches, Universities, Guilds, and schools, and to all heads of families in the United Provinces. This, which has been called “ a noble” work, has a relation to our subject, which must not be estimated by the num­ ber of pages devoted to its consideration. The chief part, in­ cluding two brief chapters on “ The observance of the Christian Sabbath, and its Rule in the Decalogue,” must have been printed, though not issued, before the production of Bursius appeared. Teellinck felt that some counteractive to the mischievous tendency of such a book was necessary. 'He accordingly replied to it, not by argument, for which he referred to the Rust-tijdt, or by abuse, but by a Declaration, enunciating in distinct propositions his own Sabbatic creed. This was the fitting answer of a Christian to the scurrility of the WeeJclag ; and being published when the writer had only two more years to live, may be regarded as his dying testimony to opinions, by the advocacy of which he had eminently promoted the religion and morals of his country. Many eyes were now turned to Waleeus as the individual who ought to enter the lists with Bursius, or rather with the redoubtable Gomarus. The deep interest felt on the occasion appears from the language of Teellinck, already quoted, and from that of Udemann, both of them distinguished by their zeal in the Sabbatic cause. “ G. Y. Z.,” that is, we have no doubt, “Godfrey Udemann, Zierik- i Tck wenschste maer alleene, etc.; Wal Oper. tom. ii. p. 446. 1 0 0 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. zee,” in a letter to the Professor, having expressed his conviction that he must have seen the truly mournful dirge of Mr. James Burs, which was blazoned in all the book-shops, having obtested him by many sacred considerations to publish his anxiously looked for Treatise, and having assured him that the ministers could not interfere without injury, proceeds thus— “ The remedy, under God, is expected from your Theological Faculty, which can, with greater authority and better success, confute so impudent calumnies, and still the rising tempest. This man boasts that his doctrine is the doctrine of the Church, and that others, who teach that one of seven days is to be sanctified, that the Sabbath is from the begin­ ning, that the Lord’s day took its origin from the Apostles them­ selves, that this day is unchangeable, etc., deliver opinions, new, erroneous, dangerous, Brownistic, and unheard-of by the ancient Church anil first Reformers— and what not. You should say that some Nestor spoke, or rather that Apollo from his tripod poured forth his oracles, so haughtily does he assert his own views, and reject the views of other men. I pass over his sar­ casms and numberless calumnies, which, as many opine, merit for his production the title of a Menippean Satire rather than the name of a Lament.”1 The parents of Antonius Walseus (1573-1639) were, at the capitulation in 1584 of his native city Ghent, to the Spaniards, compelled to quit it for Middleburg. At the age of fifteen, when attending his father, who had collected a small force to resist the descent of the Spanish fleet on Walcheren, and lying beside him in his tent at night on a bed of straw, he “ perceived, by some sacred instinct, that he was called to be a minister of the Church of God ”— a-scene which nothing in his future life had power to exclude from his thoughts. After a course of training under the ablest masters and professors of the time,2 and visiting the most celebrated places on the Continent, he settled, in 1602, as minister of a village church in Zealand, whence he was translated to a 1 2 1 Epist. Sept. 1627, Wal. Oper. tom. ii. p. 446. 2 At Middleburg, Gruterus, and Murdisonius, a Scotsman, who shortly after this was promoted to a professorship in Leyden ; at Leyden, J-inius, Scaliger, and Go- marus; at Geneva, the octogenarian Beza and Faius; and at Basle, Grynaeus, Polanus, and Buxtorf. THE NETHERLANDS. 101 similar charge in the neighbouring city of Middleburg. There, having for his colleagues Giles Bursius, Faukelius, Teellinck, and others of less note, he laboured for fifteen years, distinguished as a popular preacher, as a laborious minister, as a zealous promoter of education and learning, and, latterly, as a leading man in the councils of the Calvinists, and at the Synod of Dort, where he was employed in all matters requiring superior acuteness, judg­ ment, address, and powers of debate, and to take part in drawing up its acts and canons. An individual so educated and experi­ enced who had'■been selected to defend Calvinism when it was in peril, and to fill a theological chair at a critical juncture— whom Grotius, his intimate friend, admired, and Uitenbogart declined to encounter in discussion, and who was the publicly- appointed counsellor of Barneveldt in prison, the president of a missionary seminary, and one of the translators of the Scriptures from the original languages into the Belgic— could be no common man ; and it was not surprising, particularly as he wns known to have directed his attention to the question, that his interference should be sought in the present emergency, and that he should be desired and expected to apply his gifted mind to the settlement of Sabbatic differences. “ Yielding,” says his biographer, “ to the importunities of his admirers, Walaeus reviewed what he had previously presented in his lectures, and extending it into a treatise, gave it to the world, to the great joy of the Churches, who, as they prized the learn­ ing of Walaeus, so also in the present instance admired his wis­ dom.”1 Udemann himself was almost satisfied. “ I rejoice,” are his words in a letter of March 29, 1628, “ that your Treatise on the Sabbath has at last been wrung from you, so as to see the light among your other learned lucubrations. The brethren in Zealand, in general, as far as I have been able to hear, applaud and thank you from the heart— at least, I have as yet met with none who has ventured to censure. Your preface appears to some sufficiently mild, and too guarded ; but I have defended you as I could, because, doubtless, you acted not without a reason, although, to confess the truth, I should have wished a little more boldness against those sciolists who set up their own dreams for articles of 1 WaL Oper. tom. i .; Vita, p. 40. 1 0 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. faith. But it was impossible for you, in a matter so delicate, to please all in everything. You have laid the foundations soundly and solidly; let others take heed how they build thereon. A translation into the vernacular language is necessary.”1 The Treatise2 made its first appearance early in 1628, in Latin, “ whence it was translated into Dutch by Silvius, pastor at Am­ sterdam.” The accomplished writer maintains the positions, that the Sabbath was of primaeval appointment— that the Fourth Commandment is partly moral and partly ceremonial— that the ceremonial part, which passed away with the Mosaic ritual, is the obligation to the observance of the seventh day of the week, and to a more rigid rest— that the moral part is that which has ever demanded, and still demands, the consecration of a seventh por­ tion of our time to sacred rest and service— and that the Lord’s day is partly of Divine authority, in so far as the Fourth Com­ mandment is moral, and partly of ecclesiastical, yet apostolic in­ stitution, inasmuch as the Apostles, by virtue of the extraordinary commission given to them for settling the doctrine and laws of the Church, and by their example, altered the season of rest and worship from the last to the first day of the week. He would, it appears to us, have consulted a nobler and scriptural simplicity of doctrine, if he had regarded “ the ceremonial as merely an appendage or circumstance which does not enter into the substance of the law,” and if he had affirmed that the Lord’s day is of Divine authority, inasmuch as the Lord of the Sabbath has by his own example, and by the inspired testimony of the Apostles, appointed it as the specific season in which, under the Christian dispensation, we are to appropriate sacred time for the purposes and in the proportion required in the Fourth Commandment. But there is no question, that he has rendered very important service to the institution by his unanswerable arguments for its antiquity, and for the enduring Divine claim on the 'seventh part of man’s time to be consecrated and employed as prescribed in the Decalogue. The writer of the author’s life, after mentioning the pleasure with which the Dissertation was hailed, says, “ Thus those billows 1 Wal. Oper. tom. ii. p. 472. * Dmertatio de Satoato seu vero sen.su atque usu IV. Pmcepti. THE NETHERLANDS. 103 of the Church were assuaged, and as it were broken in pieces on the objected rock, and would have entirely subsided, if Gomar had not believed that his interest was concerned in not allowing the things, which were known to have come from him, to be soon disregarded ; wherefore he put forth a small book on the Investi­ gation of the Sabbath. To which Bivet replied. Gomar' de­ fended himself; and although he found very few or no followers, Walseus, lest some ensnaring things should fasten, treated in pub­ lic lectures whatever novelty might seem to have been advanced, and noted some things in aid of his memory, with the view of printing an enlarged edition of his Treatise— a purpose, however, the execution of which was hindered by the labour of the New Testament version, and then for ever arrested by the hand of death. These have been added in a second edition of his Dis­ sertation concerning the Sabbath, posthumously published. Thus the differences in obscurer things are never better settled than by the prudence and authority of a great man.” 1 In September of the same year, Franciscus Gomarus (1563- 1641), formerly Professor of Theology at Leyden, along with Arminius, whose views he then, and afterwards in the Synod of Dort, so ably opposed, and now Professor of Hebrew and Divinity at Groningen, gave to the world his Investigation, intended, he said, to bring men back to the middle course, which had been pointed out by pious and learned men, and which avoided equally the Charybdis of superstition and the Scylla of profaneness. The task, he further said, was not unwillingly undertaken, out of deference at once to the just expectation of his hearers, and to the honourable desire of many brethren in the ministry. The Investigation is an attempt to show that the Fourth Command­ ment prescribed a Sabbath only for the Jews, the statute applying to other men only as in a general manner it required, at certain and sufficient times, a holy vacation from mundane business and cares, in subserviency to the ministry of the Divine word, the public profession and exercises of religion, and the recruiting of man’s strength ; that the general command of a Sabbath, recur­ ring not less seldom than that of the Jews, is obligatory on man­ kind, before and after Christ, by the eternal law of love; that 1 WaL Oner. tom. i . ; Vita, p. 40. 104 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. the institution, taking its origin in the wilderness of Sin, and re­ newed at Sinai, was abrogated by the crucifixion of Christ, though, in tenderness to the Jews, its use, with some ceremonies, was retained for a time by the Apostles ; and that, while it is not clearly evident that the Lord’s day, or first day of the week, was appointed by the Apostles for the worship of God, it yet appears, from the general meaning of the Fourth Commandment, that it ought to be observed in the public worship of God, nor can be violated without the injury and unworthy scandal of reli­ gion. One cannot easily reconcile the author with himself in some of his proceedings on this question, or the opinions in the Investigation and Defence with the creed of his Church, and with the common sense views of Scripture, which, there is reason to rejoice, will ever overpower the crotchets of a few good men, and the perplexing distinctions of the learned, who occasionally darken counsel by words without knowledge. It has been remarked of Gomar, that, in the great doctrinal controversy of the time, he directed his mind mainly to the study, and brought extraordinary ability to the defence, of the one article of Justification by Faith — that criterion of a standing or falling Church. But certainly his Sabbatic efforts, though exhibiting not a few indications of the learning in which he excelled, have not added much to his reputation, either by their wisdom or by their power. It is but justice to him, however, to recollect that, unlike many opponents of the institution, who have claimed the patronage of his name and the use of his arguments, he pleaded for more, not less, than the sacred time of a seventh day, and that as in general morals, so in Sabbatic practice, to employ the words of an admiring though on the question before us dissenting pupil, he “ bolted the door against all profaneness, and was as remote as possible from worldly indulgence.” 1 The celebrated Rivet (Andreas Rivetus, 1572-1661) replied to Gomar in “ four or five pages of his preelections on Exodus xx.,” which were published in March 1632, and which touched only on the question respecting the origin of the Sabbath. Of this point he had treated in a previous work on Genesis, but as Walaeus and Gomarus had taken opposite sides on the question, he ern- 1 Voet in Select Disput. P iii. p. 1242. THE NETHERLANDS. 105 braced the opportunity of his forthcoming commentary again to show his opinion, in which the Dissertation of his colleague had confirmed him. He vindicates the plain narrative of Genesis from the gratuitous glos3 which makes it a proleptical account, or in­ timated destination, of an institution which was to be actually appointed 2500 years after the creation, and to be thenceforward during the Levitical economy sanctified and blessed ; and shows from Hebrews iv. that men had entered into the Sabbatic rest when the world was made. To his astonishment, these remarks called forth from Gomar an answer, under the formidable title of a Defence of the Investigation, which challenged the modest writer of a few pages to single combat, and having the name of the cul­ prit inscribed on the title-page majusculis literis, was industriously disseminated in Amsterdam, Leyden, and in Zealand itself. In the Defence the author specifies two questions, on the right solution of which depend correct views of the Sabbath: First, Whether the institution was of primaeval origin; and, Second, Whether one day in seven is to be observed, by authority of the Fourth Commandment, in the worship of God. “ Between us,” he says, “ there is on the second question a manifest agreement, but on the first, the bond of confidence and friendship remaining nevertheless unimpaired, there is some difference.” Such Christian courtesy, which in the Sabbatic strife is not rare, it is pleasant to notice. Rivet resolved to be silent, “ to sabbatize, as it were, on the ques­ tion,” and no further to contend with a man whose age he reve­ renced, and whose learning he admired ; or if he did publish any thing, to annex it at his leisure by way of appendix to his exercises on Genesis on which he was then employed. He was confirmed in this resolution by the affliction in which the loss of a son, and of a step-son, had plunged him and his family, and by the opinion of prudent friends, who conceived that the matter had been more than sufficiently canvassed. On paying a visit to Leyden, how­ ever, he was urged by so many and by such arguments to take the field again, as to be induced to abandon his purpose, and to prepare a rejoinder, which appeared in the same year, 1633,1 as the Defence, and was afterwards inserted in the second edition of his work on the Decalogue published in 1637. The rejoinder is 1 Dissert, de Orig. Sab. Cmt., Fr. Gomarum, 8vo. 106 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. chiefly devoted to a learned and able vindication of the Sabbath as a primaeval institution— a doctrine, all opposition to which ought, after the triumphant refutations of Walaeus and Rivet, to have expired with Gomar. On the Fourth Commandment, and the celebration of the Lord’s day, our author takes low ground, hold­ ing that the commandment requires under the present economy only the consecration of some day— a sufficient time to sacred rest and service, and that the observance of the first day of the week is an arrangement not necessarily binding on Christians, but entitled to respect, as having been agreed to by the early Church — an arrangement that may be changed provided some necessity should call for it ; which necessity, however, he considers as pre • eluded by the already exercised moral right of the Church to choose her day of worship, and by the public authorization of the Lord’s day. Here, as we saw in Gomar, and shall see in Dr. John Prideaux, is a case in which some peculiar bias leads a man of the greatest learning and of acknowledged piety, into views which respect for these qualities restrains us from characterizing. On these points he tries to defend himself against the objections, and to combat the opinions of John Robinson, who had in his Just and Necessary Apology maintained the cause of the Sabbath on the ground of a strictly Divine and immutable right. Rivet, conscious that his doctrine needed it, cautions his readers against using for a cloak of licentiousness the liberty which he has asserted for them, and recommends that the Lord’s day be spent in holi­ ness, rest, joyfulness, and beneficence. Dr. Twisse, who has occu­ pied some sections of his volume on The Morality of the Fourth Commandment, with a review of Rivet’s Sabbatic doctrine, refers to his practical application of it in these pungent terms : “ As for Dr. Rivet’s honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and our demeanours to bee performed on this day, we may easily perceive how little worth they are, and how easily they vanish into smoake, after that he hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation, and that by so poore reasons and meane carriage of himselfe, that as I verily tliinke, throughout all his writings there is not to be found the like.” 1 The controversy, so far as it had proceeded before the appear- 1 P*ge 144. THE NETHERLANDS. 107 ance of the last-mentioned work, was ably reviewed in the Inqui- sitio de Sabbato et Die Dominico, which was published in 1633 I at Franeker, where the author, Nathanael Eaton, a native of Eng­ land, was at that time a student in the University. Referring in the Preface to the Sabbatic treatises of Waleeus, Gomar, and Rivet, he says, “ Pondering each of these works of learned theologians with an impartial and humble mind, as in all I perceived erudite and instructive writing, in some I acknowledged and embraced truth ; so when I thought that the other was wanting in some things, I could not but indicate the defect to his eager admirer with a gentle and modest pen ; lest carried away by the emptiest shadows, and by names in the very search of. truth, he should fall into error, and embrace a cloud instead of Juno.” The Inqui- sitio, or, as it was afterwards named, Gulielmi Amesi Sentential de Origins Sabbati, et Die Dominico, comprehends, like the Me­ dulla of that writer, the whole existing controversy in small space, and passed in course of time through several editions. The second, published in 1653, is introduced with some remarks by Christian Schotanus (1603-1671), one of the ministers of Franeker, and Professor of Greek and Church History in its University, who says, “ Again appears the judgment of our preceptor, Dr. Ames, con­ cerning our controversies on the Sabbath and Lord’s day, which an excellent young man set down in writing from the mind of that individual, and exhibited for public discussion many years since.” Disclaiming the part of a Palaemon in the strife, he adds, “ I am unwilling that this little book should a second time be seen by y°n, without a friendly word from me. The observance of the Lord’s day ought to be commended to all, and held in such honour as is due to a law of the first table.” In his remaining remarks, the learned and excellent professor sets the institution on its true foundation of Divine authority, and, distinguishing between the extremes of superstition and profaneness in the treatment of it, deplores especially the prevalence of the latter amongst those who, “ called the reformed, were yet in truth the most deformed.” Before we turn our attention again to England, the chief arena of the strife, it may be well to trace, however rapidly, the re­ maining controversies in the Netherlands. What has been num­ 108 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. bered the third of these, began in 1656, and was conducted by four Professors of Theology— Hoornbeek of Leyden, and Essen of Utrecht, on the one hand, who held that the Fourth Command­ ment is moral, and that the Lord’s day is of Divine authority; Heidan and Cocceius of Leyden, on the other, who maintained that the Fourth Commandment was, like circumcision, merely ceremonial and Jewish j that it never required worship, public or private, or anything but rest, and has been repealed; and that the Lord’s day is nothing more than an old custom and institu­ tion of the Church. The following is in substance the account of the origin and circumstances of the discussion, as given by Koel- man, who was a person of great worth, thoroughly versant in Sabbatic history, and at the time a student at Leyden. The University and Church of Utrecht were in a very flourishing state about the middle of the seventeenth century. The sanctification of the Sabbath, strongly enforced by the ministers, was more exact and conscientious than was aimed at in other parts of the Netherlands. The students of theology, imbued with sound Sab­ batic principles, were zealous in their efforts to make them known, being at the same time well indoctrinated in the Catechism, and accustomed to the repetition of sermons on the Lord’s day. But those who had studied at Leyden were, for the most part, not so well-informed [in regard to the doctrine of the Sabbath], and their practice was not so uniform. The Utrecht graduates and students, before admission to the University of Leyden, were sub­ jected, as Koelman himself witnessed and experienced, to vexa­ tious examinations on the subject of the institution. Hoornbeek, who had in 1653 been appointed to a chair in Leyden, sympa­ thized with the young men in their views and wrongs. In 1656, he published a work in which he sought at once to allay existing differences, and to promote the substantial doctrine and sacred observance of the Lord’s day. This, however, had not the desired effect. Heidan wrote his Disputatio de Sdbbato et Die Dominico, which, after being canvassed in public discussions, was translated and printed in 1658. It produced no small disturbance in the Church. “ The scandal thereby given and taken was unspeak­ ably great.” As an antidote to the poison of a book which wa3 in every one’s hands, Essen published his Dissertation on the THE NETHERLANDS. 109 Perpetual Morality of the Decalogue, first in Latin, and then in Dutch. There followed a variety of works by Heidan, Cocceius, Hoornbeek, with one by John Paschasius, under the nom-de-guerre of Nathanael Johnston, and republications of treatises by Pri- deaux, Broad, and Primerose, the last having been translated into Dutch. The States interfered in 1659 to suppress the discus­ sion, but a second and enlarged edition of the Dissertation, in­ cluding replies to Cocceius and his colleagues, made its appearance nevertheless in I860.1 , Abraham Heidanus (1597-1678) forms the subject of a eulo­ gistic article in Bayle’s Dictionary. He wrote, besides other works, a book on The Origin of Error, and a Body of Divinity, the latter published after his death. He was dismissed from the Theological Chair for disobeying and publicly animadverting on a decree of the curators of the University forbidding the professors to treat in any way of certain disputed propositions in theology and philosophy, and of Descartes’s Metaphysics. John Coch, or Cocceius, by his uncommon acquirements in oriental and rab­ binical lore, was enabled to throw light on the sacred page. But it may be questioned whether he did not contribute still more to darken it by his views of the Bible, which he regarded as through­ out a book of types and of words that ought to be understood in every possible sense.2 Agreeably to the former theory, though inconsistently with the latter, he held that the Ten Command­ ments were promulgated from Sinai, not as a law "which was to be obeyed, but as one form of the covenant of grace. John Hoornbeek (1617-1666) was born at Haarlem. Having studied at Leyden, and for five years discharged the duties of the mini­ stry at Mulheim, near Cologne, he became a professor of theology and afterwards preacher also, at Utrecht. Much against his own inclination, and the wishes of the magistrates and people there he removed in 1653 to fill the same offices at Leyden To elo­ quence, consummate ability in theological controversy,’ and high integrity, he added extensive acquaintance with languages and science, which, with his numerous publications, attested the re- 1 De Histoire, pp. 284-295. J mUnt' qU°d m lm P°ssunt~™ s, in presence of Cocceius, applied : f L / T e t0P r^ e w n Stantiati0n from the worct3> “ This is my body.”—Helcli. Leydeck, Synop. Theol. (1689), p. 37. 6 markable energy of one, who, though of singularly noble form— prater dicta, insigni corporis formd conspicuus— laboured under frequent attacks of disease, and died when he had not completed the age of forty-nine.1 His ally in the controversy, Andrew Essen (1618-1677), a native of Bommel, in Guelderland, after receiving part of his education there, and completing it at the Gymnasium and University of Utrecht, presided for ten years over the Church in Nederlangbroek. He was transferred in 1651 to the Church of Utrecht, and in 1653 appointed also one of the Professors of Theology in the' University. He published some systematic works in Theology, and treatises on particular doctrines and controversies. One of his latest efforts was an eloquent and affectionate tribute to the memory of his preceptor, Yoetius.1 2 Witsius, in his Dissertations on the Creed, says, “ Whoever wishes to see the whole doctrine of Episcopius completely overthrown may consult the accurate and solid Dissertation on the Subjection of Christ, by Andrew Essenius, a man whom I venerate as my preceptor and father in the Lord.” 3 That a contest in which such men were engaged should call forth displays of erudition and talent was to be expected. The least meritorious of the publications which it elicited were per­ haps those of Heidan. He appears to have performed his part with as much regard to his own ease as possible, the Disputation that made so much noise, containing in its fifty small pages nearly ten in succession of borrowed matter, without a single expression of acknowledgment, much less of thanks to the author, soon, indeed, to be, if not already, removed beyond the reach of this world’s censure or praise.4 The share of Cocceius was consider­ able, but its worth was not a little lessened by his fanciful views of Scripture. Hoornbeek and Essen, on the other hand, treated the Bible as a book of definite meanings, and as forming in its 1 Traj. Erudit. p. 150, etc. Hoffman’s Diet., where, on the authority of The Life of Hoornbeek, it is mentioned that he knew ten languages, and a little of two others.— Fraser’s Witsius on the Creed, voL ii. p. 612. 2 Traj. Erudit. p. 95, dtribus ei Pretiis vet Nurmorum, 1614, with other works. ENGLAND. 123 vaine challenge,” and having declared his Sabbatic creed, declined the controversy. It appears, however, that the reiterated accu­ sations, demands, and strange doctrines of the Professor, in his Rejoinder, had compelled the aggrieved minister to forego his purpose of silence, and that, according to the belief of his brother, an answer was in the hands of the publisher, who suppressed it.1 When in these writings of Mr. Brerewood we find him indulging « proud wrath,” and stoutly asserting, that the moral part of the Sabbath became on Sinai one of the perpetual words, not before ; that it is incompatible with the goodness of God to give to a man a command which, through the wickedness of other men, he can­ not keep without being punished for his obedience ; and that as the Fourth Commandment is given to the master, not to the ser­ vant, the performance of secular work by the latter on the Lord’s day in obedience to the order of the former is the sin not of the servant but of the master,— we may say, that however versant in astral matters, or in the old coins, languages, and even religions, of this lower world, he was not much at home on the subject of moral obligation, or eminently fitted by his studies or temper for religious controversy. It is but justice, however, to note that he felt relentings towards the good man, whom he had unworthily treated, and under whose ministry, with the excellent John Bruen as his fellow-worshipper, he occasionally sa t; and that his second Treatise on the Sabbath, which appeared in 1632, though not improved in its sentiments, is free from the faults of heat and abuse which disfigured the first. As for Nicholas Byfield, he has the honour to belong to “ a cloud of witnesses,” who by their character have attested the truth of their Sabbatic opinions, which, like other opinions, are “ known by their fruits.” As a minister in Chester, and afterwards as vicar of Isleworth in Middlesex, where he died, “ he was a constant, powerful, and useful preacher, a thorough Calvinist, a- nonconformist to the ceremonies, and a strict observer of the Sabbath. By his zeal for the sanctification of the Lord’s day, his labours in the ministry, and his exemplary life, religion flourished, many were converted, and Puritanism gained ground.” 2 He was the author of Expository Sermons on 1 R. Byfield’s Doctrine of the Sabbath Vindicated, p. 191. 2 Brook’s Puritans, voL ii. p. 297. 124 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. the Epistle to the Colossians and other parts of Scripture, which obtained for him a place in the Ecclesiastes of Bishop Wilkins, among the most eminent of our English commentators and writers on “ Practical Divinity.” 1 An ample and able reply to Brerewood made its appearance in 1631, under the title of “ The Doctrine of the Sabbath Vindicated, by Bichard Byfield, pastor in Long Ditton in Surrey.” The author was half-brother of Nicholas, and one of the 2000 ministers who were ejected in 1662. Beferring to “ The Learned Treatise,” he says, “ When I first received this booke, a little before November last, though I was utterly ignorant of any such controversie to have passed between my brother and Master Edward Breerwood, and had not yet cast mine eye on the base language of the reply in the end of the Treatise, yet the very noveltie, and dangerous vilnesse of the doctrine, without any reference to things personall, strucke me. My spirit was stirred in me, when I saw the whole right of the Law for the time of God’s worship alleviated, the consequence whereof must needs be this, the whole kingdome wlroly given to Atheisme and profanenesse.” He proceeds to show, that the Fourth Commandment is given to the servant and not to the master only; that the commandment is moral; that our own light works, as well as gainful and toilsome, are forbidden on the Sabbath ; that the Lord’s day is of Divine institution; and that the Sabbath was instituted from the beginning ; doctrines to be found in the Homilies, and in the almost universal creed of Christendom. The intrepid, if not always discreet Henry Burton, rector of St. Matthew’s, Friday Street, London, had published several works against Popery, for which he was subjected in every instance to trouble by the ruling prelates, and in one of the cases, to suspen­ sion from his benefice. But the man who, referring to his various citations before Laud, could say, “ I was not at any time before him, but methought I stood over him as a schoolmaster over his schoolboy, so great was the goodness of God upon me,” 2 was not to be deterred by any danger from contending for the sanctity and Divine authority of the Sabbath, which he did in The-Law and 1 Eccles. [1693], pp. 97,101, 108. 2 A Narration of the Life of Mr. Henry Hurton, p. 7. ENGLAND. 125 the Gospel Reconciled (1631), and in Sermons for God and the King (1636). Among the charges brought against him in the High Commission were these : that he had spoken against the putting down of afternoon sermons on the Lord’s day, and against the setting up of crucifixes. It was on account of such acts as these, by which he sought to stem the tide of corruption in the Church and State, and not on account of disaffection to the Go­ vernment, for he loved his King and the Constitution, that he was condemned to a series of grievous wrongs, and, along with Prynne and Bastwick, to savage indignities, which it is impossible even to read of without horror. It was not in 1628, as Fuller states, but in 1632, that Theo- philus Braboume “ set forth a book, dedicated to his Majesty, entitled, A Defence of that most Ancient and Sacred Ordinance of God's, the Sabbath-dag.” This was a larger work than his Dis­ course of 1628 on the same subject; and if the author on neither occasion “ sounded the first trumpet to the fight,” he yet, by his second publication, blew a blast in the ear of royalty itself, which compelled attention, and provoked immediate as well as lasting hostilities. In the Defence, after laying down the position, that the Fourth Commandment is simply and entirely moral, contain­ ing nothing legally ceremonial in whole or in part, and ought therefore, in its full force and virtue, to be obeyed to the world’s end, he proceeds to affirm that the Saturday, or seventh day of the week, ought to be an everlasting holy day in the Christian Church, the religious observation of which day obligeth Christians under the Gospel, as it did the Jews before the coming of Christ, and that the Sunday, or Lord’s day, is an ordinary working day, which it is superstition and will-worship to make the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. “ I am tied in conscience,” were his words, “ rather to depart with my life than with this truth; so captivated is my conscience and enthralled to the law of my God.”1 The “ pride,” however, which v'as thus confident, “ went before a fall. He was called before the Court of High Commission, where, according to Bishop White, “ there was yeelded unto him 1 a deliberate, patient, and full hearing, together with a satisfactory answer to all his maine objections.” 2 The result of this, and.of 1 Defence, Dedication, p. 1. 2 Treatise of the Sahlath Day, Dedication, p. Hi, 126 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. a private conference, was a confession made in “ a publike and honourable audience,” that “ his position touching the Saturday Sabbath was a rash and presumptuous error,” and “ the Sunday, or Lord’s day, is an holy day of the Church, yea, and a most ancient holy day, and very honourable,” with a humble submission unto his holy Mother, the Church of England, and the promise, “ I will ever hereafter carry myselfe as an obedient sonne, in all peaceable and dutifull behaviour to my Mother the Church, and to the godly fathers and governors thereof.” 1 It was a confirma­ tion of the proverbial ardour of new converts, that the penitent had scarcely left the Commission, when he handed to one of its members a breviate, charging the Puritans with having led him astray, a charge which the bishop was not slack to re-echo, both he and Brabourne himself being willing that the latter, though a man of no mean parts, should pass for a simpleton, in order to excite against a harmless but hated class the already overheated zeal of the authorities.2 There was something suspicious in such a conversion. A partial writer says all that could be said in its j justification, and it is little : “ Eor some reason, it is not possible to ascertain distinctly what, though probably he was overawed by the character of the assembly, he signed a recantation, and went back to the bosom of the Church. Nevertheless, he continued to assert, that if the Sabbatic institution be indeed moral and per­ petually binding, the seventh day ought to be sacredly kept.”3 We are informed by Dr. Collinges of what appear to have been the latest opinions of Brabourne, who, he says, “ came to assert three Gods, and grew to keep no Sabbath, making bargains, etc., on his Sabbath.” 4 - We may here adopt the words of Fuller : “ Pass we now from the pen to the practical part of the Sabbatarian difference. Somer­ setshire was the stage whereon the first and fiercest scene thereof was acted. Here wakes (much different, I daresay, from the watching prescribed by our Saviour) were kept on the Lord’s day, with church-ales, bid-ales, and clerk’s-ales.” The wakes had their origin in the festivals instituted in memory of the dedication of churches, and were kept on the Lord’s day before or after the 1 Treatise of the Sabbath Day, pp. 305-7. 2 Ibid, pp. 307, 308. ® Davy’s Bist. of the Sablatar. Churches, p. 127. * Modest Plea, p. 74. ENGLAND. 127 memorial-day of the saint to whom the churches were dedicated, because the people had not leisure to observe them on the week­ days. The object of church-ales was to raise money for repairing churches, and for the poor by means of benevolences collected after divine service at pastimes in the churchyard, or at drinkings and merry-makings in the public-house. Clerk-ales were for behoof of the parish-clerk, to whose house the parishioners sent provisions, and then came on Sundays to feast with him, “ whereby he sold more ale.” A bid-ale was a Sunday’s feast, at which contribu­ tions were made by his friends for the setting-up again of some decayed brother.1 In 1631, while going the Western Spring Circuit, the Lord Chief-Justice (Sir Thomas Richardson) and Baron Denham, were importuned by the gentry in Somersetshire “ to make a severe order for the suppressing of all ales and revels on the Lord’s day.” They accordingly issued such an order, requiring the minister of each parish to publish it on three several Sundays every year. On “ the return of the circuit,” Judge Richardson punished cer­ tain persons who had violated the order, and gave a second strict charge against the revels. Laud complained to the King of the judge’s proceedings as an invasion of the episcopal jurisdiction, whereupon Richardson was summoned befpre the Council. Al­ though he pleaded that the order was issued at the request of the justices of the peace, with the consent of the whole Bench, and adduced precedents in the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles himself, in vindication of his conduct, he received tf reprimand, and was peremptorily enjoined to revoke his order at the next assizes, which he complied with, he said, “ as much as in him lay.” In a letter to Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells, requiring further information respecting the manner in which the church-feasts were “ ordered,” Laud observed, “ While his majesty conceives, and that very rightly, that all outrages or disorders at those feasts may and ought to be prevented by the care of the justices of the peace, the feasts themselves ought to be kept for the neighbourly meeting and recreation of the people, of which he would not have them debarred under any frivolous pretences.” The bishop, in his reply, stated, that the suppression of the feasts was very unacceptable, 1 Bishop Pierce, in Neal’s Puritans (1837), voL i. pp. 559, 560. 128 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. and that the restitution of them would be very grateful to the gentry, clergy, and common people ; mentioned that he had “ pro­ cured the hands of seventy-two of his clergy ” in their favour, and might have had a hundred more, but was satisfied with the num­ ber, being that of the translators of the Old Testament into Greek, and recommended the Sunday recreations ; because, besides other reasons, they brought the people more willingly to church, tended to civilize them, and compose differences, and served to increase love and beneficence. On the other hand, the justices of the peace addressed a petition to the King for the suppression of the revels, which, they said, had introduced not only a great profanation of the Lord’s day, but riotous tippling, contempt of authority, quar­ rels, murders, with other evils, and were very prejudicial to the peace, plenty, and good government of the country.1 “ Here,” according to Neal, “ we observe the laity petitioning for the reli­ gious observation of the Lord’s day, and the bishop, with his clergy, pleading for the profanation of it.”2 Laud was raised to the primacy, August 16, 1633. His letter to Bishop Pierce was dated October 4th of the same year. And a fortnight had not elapsed ere the Second Declaration of Sports appeared. This document, after narrating the grounds and proceedings of James in issuing his Declaration of 1618, and repeating the De­ claration itself word for word, says, “ Now out of a like pious care for the service of God, and for suppressing of any humors that oppose truth, and for the ease, comfort, and recreation of our well­ deserving people, we do ratify and publish this our blessed father’s Declaration ; the rather because of late in some counties of our kingdom, we find that under pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a general forbidding, not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of the churches, commonly called wakes. Now, our express will and pleasure is, that these feasts, with others, shall be observed, and that our justices of the peace, in their several divisions, shall look to it, both that all disorders there may be prevented or punished, and that all neighbourhood and freedom, with manlike and lawful exercises, be used. And we farther command our justices of assize in their several circuits, to see that no man dare trouble or molest any of our loyal and 1 Fuller and Neal, under a.d. 1633. 2 Neal (1837), vol. i. p. 560. ENGLAND. 129 dutiful people, in or for their lawful recreations, having first done their duty to God, and continuing in obedience to us and our laws. And of this we command all our judges, justices of the peace, as well within liberties as without, mayors, bailiffs, constables, and other officers, to take notice of and to see observed, as they tender our displeasure. And we farther will, that publication of this our command be made, by order from the bishops, through all the parish churches of their general dioceses respectively. Given at our Palace of Westminster the eighteenth day of October, in the ninth year of our reign. God save the King.” 1 The Declaration “ struck the sober part of the nation with a kind of horror; and the severe pressing of it made sad havoc among the Puritans for seven years.” While some of the clergy devolved the publishing of the document on their curates, and others, after reading it, pronounced the words of the Fourth Com­ mandment, or preached against the profanation of the Lord’s day, a large class, estimated at 800, positively refused to pollute their lips with the utterance of the order, and were in consequence sus­ pended, driven from their livings, excommunicated, prosecuted in the Court of High Commission, or forced to leave the kingdom.2 Let one case show the manner in which that foolish and wicked edict, having an archbishop for its most zealous abettor and most effective executioner, if not its instigator, was employed as an engine of oppression and mischief against innocent men, and many of the best of England’s ministers. It is the case of Thomas Wilson, A.M., minister of Otham, in Kent, so admirable a speci­ men of his class as might have drawn from any bishop possessed of a spark of religion or common sense, the aspiration as to his clergy, 0 si sic omnes ! On declining to read the Declaration, Mr. Wilson was sent for to Lambeth, when he was examined on this among various charges : “ You refused to read the King’s Declaration for Sports on Sundays, and spoke disdainfully to the apparitor and officer of the Court.” His reply was, “ I said to the apparitor, ‘ Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy ;’ and I said no more. I refused to read the book, not out of contempt of any authority, being commanded by no law. The King’s Ma­ jesty doth not in the book command or appoint the minister to 1 WUk, Coneii. vol. iv. pp. 483, 484. 2 Neal (1837), vol. u pp. 561-504. I 130 SKETCHES OE SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. read it, nor it to be read, but published. And seeing there is no penalty threatened, nor authority given to any one to question those who refuse to read it, my refusal to read it was upon suffi­ cient grounds of law and conscience ; which, for the satisfaction of this high Court, and to clear myself from contempt, I shall briefly express thus : His Majesty’s express pleasure is, that the laws of the realm, and the canons of the Church, be observed in all places of the kingdom, and therefore at Otham, in Kent; but this book, as I conceive, is contrary to both. It is contrary to the statute laws ; it is contrary to the ecclesiastical laws ; it is contrary to the Scriptures; it is contrary to the Councils ; it is contrary to divines, ancient and modern ; it is contrary to reason.” No sooner was this part of the defence concluded, than the Arch­ bishop said, “ I suspend you for ever from your office and benefice till you read it and Mr. Wilson continued suspended for the space of four years.1 It has been said of this excellent man : “ What he preached on the Lord’s day he practised all the week. He was a strict observer of the Sabbath, and eminently successful in promoting the same practice among his people at Maidstone, as well as at other places, one of the judges having publicly declared, that in all his circuit there was no town where the Lord’s day was so well observed.” 2 The wrongs and sufferings of hundreds of Puritan ministers tvere not the only or greatest mischief of a Declaration, which, setting at nought the Sabbatic doctrine and law of the Church, and being, in fact, as it has been termed, a royal invitation to the people to give themselves up to dissipating, riotous, and intem­ perate diversions on a day sacred to sobriety, did incalculable damage to the religion and morals of the land. In the year of its publication, Richard Baxter, then a youth, resided at White­ hall with Sir Henry Newport, Master of the Revels, having been persuaded to try his fortune at Court ; but being entertained there with a play instead of a sermon on the Lord’s-day afternoons, and hearing little preaching except what was against the Puritans, he found a month’s experience of Court life sufficient, and retired with disgust.3 His account is confirmed by the Strafford Letters, 1 Brook’s Lives of the Puritans, vol. iii. pp. 174,175. * Ibid. 3 Drme’s Life of Baxter, p. 14. ENGLAND. 131 where we have the following picture : “ The French and Spanish Ambassadors were both at the King’s mask, but not received as ambassadors. The French sat among the ladies, the Spanish in a box. It was performed on a Sunday night. My Lord Treasurer Juxon was there by command.” 1 When the Court and the clergy thus took the lead in breaking down the barriers of religion, what was to be expected but a general flood of impiety 1 “ I cannot forget,” says Baxter, “ that in my youth, in those late times, when we lost the labours of some of our conformable, godly teachers for not reading the Book of Sports and dancing on the Lord’s day, one of my father’s own tenants was the town-piper, hired by the year (for many years together), and the place of the dancing assembly was not an hun­ dred yards from our door. We could not, on tha Lord’s day, either read a chapter, or pray, or sing- a psalm, or catechize, or instruct a servant, but with the noise of the pipe and tabor, and the shoutings in the street continually in our ears. Even among a tractable people we were the common scorn of all the rabble in the streets; and called Puritans, precisians; and hypocrites, because we rather chose to read the Scriptures, than to do as they did, though there was no savour of nonconformity in our family. And when the people, by the book, were allowed to play and dance out of public service time, they could so hardly break off their sports, that many a time the reader was fain to stay till the piper and players would give, over. Sometimes the morris-dancers would come into the church in all their linen, and scarfs, and antic- dresses, with morris-bells jingling at their legs ; and, as soon as common-prayer was read, did haste out presently to their play • jj 9 again. 4 Such was the baneful influence of a book, which, though re­ plete with neither argument nor eloquence, yet, as the word of a king, had power. Scarcely, however, had “ this practical part of the Sabbatarian difference” commenced, when the Government saw that authority must, if possible/ be sustained by means of the press. Learned ecclesiastics were accordingly employed to write in vindication of the measures of the Court. And they were not slow to do the bidling of their superiors ; hence there l Vol. 11. p. 14$ 3 Practical Works (1SB8), vol. iii. V- 132 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. rose up together, or in rapid succession, a class of authors whose writings perverted the doctrine, and gave a new tone to the literature of the Sabbath. Among the foremost was the noted Dr. Peter Heylyn, who issued, in 1634, his already-mentioned translation of Prideaux’s Oration, and, in 1635, his History of the Sabbath, which, though extending to 450 quarto pages, “ was written, printed, and pre- „ sented to tiie King in less than four months.” 1 In this work the author traces the alleged Notices of the Institution from the 2d chapter of Genesis down to the Declaration of Charles i., gather­ ing in his course proofs, as he presumes, that the Sabbath was unknown in the world till it was given to the Jews, who neither observed nor regarded it as a moral precept; that, at the destruc­ tion of theis temple by the Romans, it was abrogated with other ceremonies ; and was, by-the few Gentiles who took notice of it, known only to be derided ; while the Lord's day had no other authority than the voluntary consecration of it to religious uses by the Church, rose gradually, by means of edicts, canons, and decretals, to the esteem it enjoys, and may, when not employed in public worship; be spent in all such business and pleasures as are lawful in themselves, and not forbidden by the existing civil power. In his Life of Archbishop Laud, Heylyn informs us that, while “ the practical and historical part ” was assigned to “ Heylyn of Westminster, who had gained some reputation for his studies in the ancient writers,” “ the argumentative and scholastical was referred to the right learned Dr. White, then Bishop of Ely, who had given good proof of his ability in polemical matters in several books and disputations against the Papists.”2 Dr. White him­ self, who published his Treatise of the Sabbath in 1635, states in the Dedication to Laud, that he had, by his Grace’s direction, obediently performed in the publication what was commanded by his sacred Majesty, whose will it was that a treatise should be set forth in counteraction of those principles, commonly preached, printed, and believed throughout the kingdom, on which Bra- bourne had grounded his arguments. It showed “ method in their madness ” that the authors and defenders of the Booh of 1 Vernon’s Life of Heylyn, p. 8S. 8 Page 290. ENGLAND. 133 Sports sought to cover their opposition to those generally received “ principles,” in other words, to the doctrine of Bownd and of the Homilies, under the pretext that such doctrine led, by necessary consequence, to opinions so extreme and unpopular as those of the Sabbatarian just named. While White has much in common with Heylyn, it is only just to him to say that he admits an obligation of “ equity ” on Christians in the Fourth Commandment, “ argues the apostolical institution of the Lord’s day from its immediate universal adoption,” and states, that to devote it wholly to reli­ gion is/“ a work of grace and godliness pleasing and acceptable to God. 1 His Treatise has been called the most learned produc­ tion of the time on its subject, yet, both in the work itself, and in a defence of it against an able anonymous reply, he deals so largely in undignified abuse as not only to evince very slender attainments in self-government, but to betray the fact and the consciousness that his cause was as weak in the moral, as it- was strong in the physical force, by which it was supported. “ I turned over the leaves both of the Bishop’s and D. Heylyn’s book,” says “ the pious and profoundly learned ” Joseph Mede, writing to Dr. Twisse in April 1636, “ when they came newly out, that I might see their principles and the way they went : further I am not acquainted with them ; because I took no pleasure neither in their conclusions nor in their grounds, which if they be urged, would overthrow a great deal more than they are aware of.”2 Drs. Heylyn and Francis White were followed by Dr. Pock-* lington, whose Sunday no Sabbath : a Sermon, after passing, what was to him, the easy ordeal of the licenser, in the earlier part of 1635, was preached by the author in August of the same year, ' and, according to the copy before us, had reached its second edition from the press by 1636. In 1640, the Long Parliament committed a blunder, to say the least, when it condemned the Sermon, with the Altare Christianum, another product of the doctor’s pen,^ to be publicly burnt in the city of London and the two Universities, by the hands of the common hangman— a fate inappropriate to performances which otherwise would have found ’ their way to their native obscurity. 1 TreatUe> PP- 235, 256. s Works (1672)i P m 1 It does not appear whether A Sovereign Antidote against Sab- batharian Errors, “ by a r<*eren(f, religious, and judicious divine,” printed in 1636, came out under the sanction of its author, Dr. Sanderson, who had, written and sent it in a manuscript letter to a Mr. Th. Sa. of Nottinghamshire, in the year 1634. It has been published at different times with the name of the writer in his Cases of Conscience. From a comparison of this tract with previous and subsequent works of Dr. Sanderson, it should seem that his views of the subject fluctuated; and it has been sup­ posed that, in his case as in that of Hammond, the influence of the primate prevailed over the judgment of the individual.1 The following words of the tract in question give countenance to the latter view, and, at all events, show a truckling to the powers that were, unworthy of the man who wrote them : “ In this matter, touching Recreations to be used on the Lord’s day, much need not be said, there being little difficulty in it, and his Majesty’s last Declaration in that behalf having put it past Dis­ putation. Those Recreations are the meetest to be used, which give the best refreshing to the body, and leave the least impres­ sion in the mind ; in which respect, shooting, leaping, pitching the bar, stool-ball, etc., are rather to be chosen than dicing, card­ ing, etc.” 2 Two other works of similar view's belong to the same year. One of them is A Treatise of the Sabbath and the Lord's D ay, by David Primerose, minister of the Protestant Church at Rouen. It was “ Englished out of his French MS.” by his father, Dr. Gilbert Primerose, a Scotsman who had been for some time a minister at Bordeaux, but now presided over a French congrega­ tion in London. If among works of the class and time the Trea­ tise of Bishop White excelled in learning, and Dr. Heylyn’s 1 History was a prodigy of energetic application, the publication of Mr. Primerose must be regarded as bearing away the palm for a thorough-going heartless determination to explain away every­ thing that makes for a holy and beneficent Sabbath. The other work is A Discourse of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, by Chris­ topher Dow, B.D., who was willing, he says, it should see the i James’s Four Sermons on the Sacraments and Sabbath, P- 259. * Eight Cases of Conscience (1674), pp- 16,17. 134 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. ENGLAND. 1 3 5 light, “ considering that the brevity of it might make it passe and find favour with some, and that being %f a mean straine, it might better meete with common capacities than larger and more elabo­ rate tractates.” The writer, we trust, did not know, though he ought to have known, that this was the language of self-gratula- tion on the honour of contributing in any measure to the over­ throw of one of the best bulwarks of Christianity and his country. When we add the Seven Questions of the Sabbath, by Gilbert Ironside, B.D., and Dr. Heylyn’s Brief and Moderate Answer to Mr. Henry Burton, both printed in 1637, wrn nearly complete, so far as we know, the list of original publications in defence of the Declaration of Sports, that appeared from 1632 to 1638, or, we might say, to 1650, twelve years of that period being a blank in anti-Sabbatic literature. It takes not a little from the credit of these champions of Sabbath amusements, that men of other views, many of whom were both able and willing, had no liberty, either from pulpit or press, to expound their opinions. For recommending from the pulpit, in opposition to the Treatise of Bishop White, the sacred observance of the Lord’s day, Mr. George Walker, a London rec­ tor, was convened before the Primate, and received canonical ad­ monition.1 And his having spoken against the putting down of afternoon sermons on the Lord’s day was one of a few, not more heinous, acts for which Mr. Henry Burton was condemned to im­ prisonment and horrible mutilation of his person. Apart from its danger, the publication of writings favourable to the Sabbath was impeded by difficulties almost insurmountable. Some two or three tracts by Prynne, one by Burton, and a new edition of Sprint’s Propositions formed, accordingly, the amount of force which was brought to bear against the attacks of the numerous publications, great and small, on the other side. The authors of these pub­ lications were, in some instances, ungenerous enough to twit an unlicensed opponent, who some wray or other was enabled to give his sentiments to the world through the press, with the contraband character of his literary wares; an argument feeble for every other purpose than to quicken the vigilance of the autho­ rities. 1 Athen. Oxon. vol. i.p. 4$0, 136 SKET0HES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. It was another material deduction from the glory of the anti- Sabbatic writers in questioif, and from the weight of their opinions, that they were bound together and to a common cause by the spell of one gifted, unscrupulous, and resolute spirit. The dedications, the courtly eulogies, and in some instances the avowal of royal command or of arehiepiscopal authority, as their reason for writing, pointed to Laud as the ruling star. But this subject more fitly falls to be treated by a clergyman of the Church of England. “ It will readily be believed, that the opinion which was adopted by the energetic mind of Laud, soon found other kindred spirits to support i t : accordingly at this time there rose up an host of men, who will ever be ranked among our ablest divines, and who all seemed to follow his course : Bishops White and Bramhall, and v Jeremy Taylor, and Sanderson, with Dr. Hammond, and, though last, perhaps not least, Dr. Barrow.” The objection, he observes, is not to the statement of duty as made by these great theologians, but to their rejection of the ground on which it truly rests, all of them regarding the Fourth Commandment as a Jewish and tem­ porary ordinance, and all, except White, denying the apostolical institution of the Lord’s day. After attributing “ this agreement in deviation from the generally-received opinion ” in some measure to “ the extravagance of the Sabbatarians,” he thus proceeds : “ Something, too, must be ascribed to the influence of friendship, and the mutual interchange of thought, if we consider how they were all connected together. Bramhall went into Ireland with his patron, Lord Strafford; White was the friend, Taylor the chap­ lain of Archbishop Laud, by whom also Sanderson was recom­ mended to the royal favour ; Hammond was the friend of Sander­ son ; and though Barrow was of a somewhat later day, in his early life distress occasioned by the civil war made him indebted for his education to the generosity of Dr. Hammond.” 1 This line of remark may be extended to other less distinguished mem­ bers of the fraternity. Dr. Heylyn, it is well known, was the protege of the Primate. Drs. Pocklington and G. Primerose were king’s chaplains. Christopher Dow, says even Wood, “ was much favoured by Dr. Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (whose creature and champion he was), and by him promoted to several ecclesi- 1 James’s Four Sermons, pp. 252 257. ENGLAND. 137 astical benefices.” 1 Primerose, the son,, had been the admiring and admired pupil of Prideaux. Ironside, indeed, Wood informs us, was “ never chaplain to any spiritual or temporal lord, or to any king or prince.” His views, he himself says, were formed and declared many years before the King’s declaration was published and his preferments to a prebend and bishopric, we may add, came after services rendered by him to the Government. But he, too, was a humble, if not a “ hungry expectant of office,” when, in dedicating the “ Seven Questions ” to Laud, he besought his Grace “ to receive both the work and the author into his patronage and protection,” and added a prayer for “ our Aaron, as if the Jewish “ high priest ” and “ saint ” were a type in anything, except in the worship of the golden calf, of a person who, so far from being “ a lover of good men,” was the leader of a class whose deeds Sir B. Budyerd thus described and denounced in P a r lia m e n tW e have seene Ministers, their Wives, Children, and Families undone, against law, against conscience, against all bowels of compassion, about not dancing upon Sundayes. What doe these sort of men think will become of themselves, when the Master of the house shall come, and finde them thus beating their fellow-servants 1” 2 The Primate and his friends had now, as far as they could, re­ duced the Sabbatic institution to a nullity. And this was only one of many wrongs, which drove thousands of families to foreign shores, till, by an Act of the King and Council, even this relief from oppression was precluded to its victims. But the year 1640 came, and along with it the exhaustion of the country’s patience under protracted misrule. The Parliament assembled in Novem­ ber, and declaring its sittings permanent, proceeded vigorously to its Herculean task of reformation. To the Sabbath it rendered some important services ; bringing to light the melancholy extent to which clerical ungodliness and profligacy, Trentine errors, and the want of religious teaching, prevailed in the Church, whereby were demonstrated the folly and wickedness of Laud’s Anti-Sab­ batic policy ; passing several Acts for enforcing existing Statutes relative to the observance of the Lord’s day, the members con­ sistently exemplifying the law in their own practice ; securing for 1 Athen. Oxon. vol. i. p. 840. 2 Speeches and Passages of this Great and Happy Parliament, pp. 103,104. * 1 3 8 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. the friends of the day freedom to proclaim their views regarding it from pulpit and press without fear of the Star Chamber, the High Commission, imprisonment, confiscation of goods, or bodily mutila­ tion ; and calling together the Westminster Assembly, thus elicit­ ing one of the clearest and most important testimonies ever borne to the Divine authority, perpetual obligation, and sacred character of the Weekly Rest. Of their new-born liberty several learned and excellent men speedily availed themselves to pour out through the press their Sabbatic stores. No less than eleven treatises, for the most part of considerable extent, and of no ordinary ability, appeared on be­ half of the institution in the course of 1641. Two of them—- a reprint of the Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine, by Bishop Andrewes, and the Theses De Sabbato, by Bishop Lake— were posthumous. The authors of the other works were Hamon, son of Sir Hamon L’Estrange ; Dr. George Hakewill, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford; Richard Bernard, the laborious Rector of Bat- combe ; Dr. William Gouge, the pious and accomplished minister of Blackfriars, London ; John Ley, rector successively of various parishes, who, in Sunday a Sabbath, one of two treatises published by him, was assisted by the m ss. and advice of Archbishop Ussher ; George Abbot, a member of the Long Parliament, as well as a minister of the gospel ; George Walker, Rector of St. John the Evangelist, already referred to ; and Dr. William Twisse, minister of Newbury, a native of its neighbourhood, and Prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly. The Morality of the Fourth Command­ ment is perhaps the ablest treatise of the year 1641, and one which deserves ever to rank high amongst works of its class. A i profound thinker, and an accomplished debater, Dr. Twisse was , no less distinguished as a Christian, who, there is good reason to trust, now enjoys the begun realization of his hope as thus ex­ pressed when he was about to die : “ Now I shall have leisure to pursue my studies to all eternity.” The value of his work, in­ trinsically great, is enhanced by the already-mentioned sententious and pithy performance of Bishop Lake, which is appended to it. This learned prelate concludes the Theses by saying, that whik cherishing charity for those who differed from him, and desiring for all the sobriety of judgment commended in Rom. xiv., yet ENGLAND. 139 « seeing to fetch the authority of the Lord’s day from God, and to keepe it with all reasonable strictnesse, maketh most for piety— in a doubtfull case I incline thither.” While the admirable testimony of the Westminster Assembly on the subject of the Sabbath, to be presented in another part of this volume, had not yet appeared, certain writers conceived that in the works which had been recently published, numerous and excellent though these were, justice had not been done to an in­ stitution so outrageously wronged by the measures of Charles I. and Laud.1 In addition to the ingenious treatise of Irenseus Philalethes in 1643, and a work by John Lawson in the follow­ ing year, there appeared one of the largest, ablest, and most satis­ factory discussions which the subject ever received, belonging, the first volume to 1645, the second to 1652. The authors, Daniel Cawdrey and Herbert Palmer, were distinguished members of the Westminster Assembly, by whose order, it has been said, the Sabbaium Pedivivum was written. Palmer having in 1647, “gone to celebrate the Sabbatism above,” it was left to the other to “put »the last hand and file” to the work. It is stated in the Preface that they had prepared their m s. when “ nothing had appeared for, but all against, the Sabbath,” and that they were dissatisfied with former writers for either regarding the Saturday Sabbath as literally enjoined in the Fourth Commapdment, thereby “ losing their cause and the commandment too,” or not sufficiently confut­ ing the opinion. Palmer and Cawdrey were followed by John White, “ the Patriarch of Dorchester,” in a valuable dissertation of 1647 ; by Hezekiah Woodward in 1648 ; and by Thomas Shepard (1649), whose excellent volume will fall to be again noticed. The opponents of the Sabbatic doctrine of the Puritans and of the Homilies had now for thirteen years been mute on the subject, i From the following views expressed by Charles, it may be inferred that the Anti- Sabbatic measures of Laud formed no exception to the matters in which, according to Echard and Clarendon, the prelate had the hearty concurrence of the king: “ I con­ ceive the celebration of this feast [Easter] was instituted by the same authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lord’s day or Sunday. For it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept, or turned into Sunday; wherefore it must be the Church's authority that changed the one and instituted the other.’’— Morer’s Dialogues, p. 58. 1 4 0 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. constrained to silence for the greater part of that time, probably, by a fear of the treatment which befel Pocklington and Bray.1 But at length encouraged by the state of feeling and of parties that followed the death of Charles I., an anonymous writer, who afterwards gave his name as Edward Fisher, Esq., craved to be heard, affirming and proving that Christmas day and the Lord’s day are institutions of equal weight and authority, and that it is no less sinful to work on the former than on the latter day. The performance gave rise to a full and learned vindication of the Sab­ bath by Giles Collier, Vicar of Blockley, against the attempt to degrade it to the level of a human appointment; and to a publi­ cation by John, afterwards Dr. Collinges of Norwich, exposing the error of raising Christmas to the dignity of a divine institution. After a remarkable tract by Thomas Chafie, Vicar of Nutshelling, reprinted in 1692 with a recommendation by Bates and Howe ; an interesting practical work by Philip Goodwin, “ Pastour of the publike congregation, Watford j” a learned Latin dissertation by Dr. Henry Wilkinson, and publications by Prynne and Pynchon, all in favour of the Sabbath, there appeared in 1657, The Judg­ ment of Ussher on that and other points, in which we are favoured with a long and erudite letter of the Archbishop to Dr. Twisse, upholding the doctrine of the Irish Articles. To this work, edited by Dr. Nicholas Bernard, Dr. Heylyn replied in his Petrus Re­ sponded displaying in the renewed effort to destroy the institution all his old zeal, and more than his former subtlety. Regardless of the Doctor’s sophisms, Pearson, afterwards Bishop of Chester, proclaimed, in his Exposition of the Creed (1659), the common- sense view of the Sabbath, which, when the dust raised by what was really a faction in the Church had been well-nigh blown away, was seen to be the general creed of Churchmen, as it was of Non­ conformists, and as it has continued to be the faith of both classes to this day. The prolonged discussion of the subject by the friends of the institution has been, in part, owing to the necessity for checking 1 In 1641 “ the Lower House ordained the Mayor to see them both [Pocklington’s Altar e Christianwn and Sunday no Sabbath] burnt at Cheapside, and Bray, the licenser, to read out of a paper his condemnation of a number of errors which he had licensed He did so with a great deal of feigned repentance, for the Lower House this year makes many hypocrites. Baillie’s Letters (1775), vol. i. p. 290. ENGLAND. 141 desecrations of the Sabbath which have more or less prevailed. The evils of the Rook of Sports, and of the writings by which it was defended, were not to be remedied in a day. There mixed, moreover, in the ranks of the truly good and earnest men of the Commonwealth not a few who were mere followers of the multi­ tude, and whose overdone profession of religion excited only dis­ gust and contempt in one class and pity in another. When such persons returned at the Restoration to their natural element of licentiousness, they swelled the tide of profligacy, which, setting in from the Court, overflowed the land. The immorality and pro­ faneness of that period are notorious, and we are let into the know­ ledge of their leading cause by Evelyn’s sketch of a Sunday scene, which he witnessed at Whitehall, and where figured the king, his concubines, twenty great courtiers, with other dissolute persons, at cards round a large table, and “ a French boy singing love songs in that glorious gallery.”1 Dr. Heylyn had said that danger to England was to be apprehended from the superstitious observance, not from the profane neglect of the Lord’s day. We know not what his feelings were in the two years that he survived the Restoration, when he had it in his power, by a comparison of the state of the country with what it had lately been, to estimate his gifts as a seer, and the moral value of his views and labours as an anti-Sabbatist. Referring, in 1760, to Heylyn’s prophecy, Jephson says : “We have lived to see the contrary, and that the Lord’s day is overrun by pro­ faneness infinitely more than ever it wras overflown by superstition.”2 Bishop Horsley preached his eloquent sermons on the subject to­ wards the close of the last century, and mentions “ the roads crowded on the Sunday, as on any other day, with travellers of every sort,” and “ the mingled racket of worldly business and plea­ sure going on with little abatement” in London, as “ scandals calling loudly for redress.” The Sunday press, Sunday excursions by steamers, and Sunday trading, especially in intoxicating liquors, were the metropolitan enormities which disgraced the earlier part of the present century. And in our own day, when the institu­ tion has more than at any former time been assailed by the press, when railway proprietors have multiplied travelling, and its atten- 1 Memoirs (1827), vol. iii. p. 137. i Discourse on the Religious Observation of the Lord’s Day, Preface, p. viji. 1 4 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. dant dissipation, on the Sabbath, a thousand fold, and when a National League strains every nerve to have a continental Sunday legalized in England, the tendencies of such measures receive mournful illustration in the fact that five millions of our country­ men habitually forsake the assembling of themselves together on the day and in the house of God. But controversy has been rendered necessary by the prevalence of wrong opinions of the Sabbath, as well as by the practical abuses, in which they have both their origin and their result. The notion that every day is alike, entertained with various mean­ ing and object by Saltmarsh (after Hetherington and others), Porter, Belsham, and a party who claim to themselves the dis­ tinctive title of “ The Followers of Jesus,” though it has had too few and inconsiderable supporters to call forth any special refuta­ tion, has not altogether passed unnoticed by defenders of a periodi- ! cal holy day. More fruitful of discussion have been the views of a class of men who, spread over a space of more than two centuries, have contended for the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath against the Christian world. Traske and Braboume have been followed by Ockford, Sailer and Spittlehouse, Tillam, Chamberlain, Coppinger, the Stennets, the Bampfields, Philanthropes, Philotheos, Carlow, Elwall, Cornthwaite, Wyncup, Dawson, Burnside, Shen- ston, and W. H. Black. But by far the greater part of the Sab­ batic controversy and literature of England during the last two centuries has been owing to the necessity for combating opinions adverse to a weekly rest considered as in all ages a divinely ap­ pointed and essentially identical ordinance. Among the principal writers who have concurred in rejecting the generally received doc­ trine of a Sabbath expressly given and prescribed by God to man­ kind “ from Adam to his latest son” have been Jeremy Taylor, Hammond, Bramhall, Barrow, and Spencer, in the latter half of the seventeenth century ; Grascome, Morer, Paley, and Ogden, in the eighteenth ; Higgins, Whately, Bannerman (author of the Modem Sabbath Examined), Fearon, PowelT^rnoId, Domville, and Reichel, in the nineteenth. Persons so different from each other in impor­ tant respects, and even in their views of the institution, must be understood as now classified together simply on the ground of their common hostility to a primaeval holy day, and to the obligation on ENGLAND. 143 Christians of the Fourth Commandment. We would not confound the noble Arnold with the ignoble Higgins, of whom a reviewer favourable to his doctrine says, “ he is destitute of every quality that gives respect to a writer j”1 Bramhall, who pleads so excel­ lently for the express appointment of the Lord’s day by Christ, and Grascome, who holds the same views, with Whately, who grounds the institution on the authority of the Church ; or Taylor and Barrow, who affirm, the former, that “ the observation of the Lord’s day differs nothiug from the observation of the Sabbath in the matter of religion, but in the manner,” the latter, that “ Christians ought to consecrate as much or more time to religion and mercy than the Jews,” with Powell, who deems it an unhappy and super­ stitious misconception to suppose that it is sinful to do on a Sun­ day anything which it is not sinful to do on another day, and who, by hailing “ the inevitable rejection of the historical character of the Mosqjc narrative as a marked feature in the theological and spiritual advance of the present age,” announces a principle which goes to “ destroy the foundations” alike of the Sabbath and of revelation. Nor would we identify the views of Paley and Ogden, who acknowledge the Lord’s day to be of divine authority, and even repudiate certain practices thereon as unbecoming the public worship allotted to the day, with those of Morer, who places his church and himself in opposition to the doctrine that the institu­ tion is of divine right ; of Spencer, who considers the whole Hebrew ritual, in which he includes the Sabbath, as of heathen origin ; of Fearon, who accounts for the Christian rest in the same w ay; of Bannerman, who believes that Scripture requires an every-day Sabbath, while he would by no means set aside the poli- j tical enactment of a weekly holy day ; of Domville, who main- j tains that there is no warrant to be found in the Bible for believing that we are enjoined by divine authority to observe the Sunday either as a Sabbath or as a stated day of assembling for public ! worship and religious instruction; or, we may add, of Milton, who, already known on the authority of Dr. Johnson as having in his latter days discontinued the observance of public and domestic worship, was by his posthumous work of 1825 fully disclosed as an Anti-Sabbatist to the extent even of surrendering every autho- 1 C ritic a B ib lica , vol. iv . p . 200. 144 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. ritative claim of the Lord’s day, except what it derives from eccle­ siastical appointment. The result of the persevering opposition to the true theory and due observance of the institution, has been, that from 1658 to the present time there have appeared no fewer than four hundred pub­ lications of every description, pleading for the divine authority, holy character, and devout observance of the Lord’s day. In re­ futation of Sabbatarianism, -works have been published by Hanson, Aspinwall, Warren, Ives, Baxter, Benn, Bunyan, Trosse, Dr. Wallis, Marlow, Keach, Fleming, Dobel, Herbert Jones, Edmonds, with others not expressly devoted to the subject. It was a compensa­ tion for the disturbances and separations which the propagation of the views opposed by such writers produced in churches and society, that the subject was in consequence more thoroughly studied, and noble defences of the first-day Sabbath were written. A work of Tillam, who had collected some followers in Colchester, gave occasion to a treatise in 1659 by Edmund Warren, minister of St. Peter’s in that town— a treatise under the title, The Jewish Sabbath Antiquated— which, notwithstanding its advocacy of the dogma of George Walker and James Alting respecting the primi­ tive Sabbath as posterior to the fall of Adam, and as grounded on the purposed redemption of Christ, contains a clear statement, a powerful defence, and a heart-thrilling application of the generally received truth. To the stimulus of Sabbatarianism we owe the Modest Plea for the Lord's P ay (1669), by Dr. Collinges of Nor­ wich ; and to a statement of the argument for the seventh day rest by the^ benevolent Francis Bampfield, we are indebted for the excellent” indication''of*the Christian Sabbath (1672), by the eminently devout and philanthropic Mr. Benn of Dorchester. Baxter (1671) and Bunyan (1685) wrote their interesting defences of the Lord’s day for relieving the perplexities with which Borne good people in their times were distressed in consequence of the proselyting zeal of Saturday Sabbatists. The work of Keach (1700), published fof'IKe samFpitfpose, issued in the restoration of his distracted church to order and peace. And but for the lucubrations of Thomas Bampfield, counsellor-at-law, we should never have been favoured with the earnest treatise by George j Trosse of Exeter (1692), who, like John Bunyan and John Newton, ENGLAND. 1 4 5 from being a profligate became a zealous minister, or with two tracts by the celebrated Wallis (1692, 1693), in which he has added to the evidence of the versatility of his genius, and of the important service that a mind cultivated by science can render to religion. Much more numerous, however, have been the works which have been directed against more dangerous errors and against practical evils. The first instalment was of the latter class, con­ sisting of publications by Nicholas Billingsley, Thomas Gouge, so distinguished by his munificent charities, William Thomas, William Bagshaw, and John Wells, all ministers of the gospel. The Prac­ tical Sabbatarian, by Wells (1668), is a voluminous, though far from dry detail of duties, accompanied by a learned statement of the argument. The acute and excellent George Hughes of Ply­ mouth published his Aphorisms, “ because fresh enemies had with old weapons new furbished assaulted the truth,” and for the pur­ pose of showing “ whether we are beholding to God or to the bare courtesy of the Church for a Sabbath.” Of the well-known treatise on the subject by John Owen (1671), we will only say that, un­ dertaken at the request of some learned men in the United Pro­ vinces, for vindicating the doctrine of the Sabbath against the attacks of “ sundry divines” in that country, who maligned it as the Figmentum Anglicanum, and designed also for the revival of the same “ much despised” doctrine in England,1 it is perhaps as masterly an exposition and defence of the institution as the world has s I* is sufficiently clear, that it is the mind of God, that one day of the week should be devoted to rest and ffeligious exer­ cises, throughout all ages and nations. Second, It is sufficiently 1 5 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTBOVERSIES. UNITED STATES. 1 5 3 clear, that, under the gospel dispensation, this day is the first day of the week.” If he has not brought so much learning to bear on the question as did Owen, he has applied to it a mind even more acute and perspicacious ; and we must hold that pro­ positions “ sufficiently clear” to Edwards, Lord Bacon, Locke, and Burke, in common with the great body of Christian men, are not evident to others simply because they will not see. The sermons appear to have been written and preached within a few years after his ordination to the ministry, and the publication of them, with that of his Journal, and Life of Brainerd, must have contributed greatly to the sanctification of the Sabbath in America, as well as wherever these works have been read. It is worthy of remark, that a discourse preached by him in condem­ nation of the prevailing practice of devoting the evening of the Sabbath, and the evening after the stated public lecture, to visit­ ing and diversion, was the means of originating the first remark­ able revival of religion (1734), under his ministry at Northamp­ ton. A pupil of Edwards, and editor of his works, Dr. Samuel Hopkins, entertained views in common with him on this as on various other subjects, and has expounded the doctrine of the Sabbath at considerable length in his System of Dodnne. Dr. Nathan Strong and Dr. Timothy Dwight had been class- fellows of equal merit, and were life-long friends. The former was “ the learned and very useful” minister of a Presbyterian congregation in Hartford, Connecticut, and “ distinguished for his discernment and knowledge of men.” His two volumes of sermons; printed in 1798, include one on the Sanctification, and another on the benefits of the Sabbath, both exceedingly good, and worthy of the friend of Dwight. While Strong was en­ gaged in the publication of his work, Timothy Dwight, the grand­ son of Edwards, had begun to deliver the course of sermons, the publication of which has given so much celebrity to his name. His contribution to the cause of the Sabbath amounts to five sermons on the Fourth Precept of the Decalogue, which form a considerable treatise, and must, during his more than twenty years’ presidency of Yale College, have been pronounced once in the hear­ ing of most of the young men under his care— in numbers that soon increased from one hundred and ten to three hundre.d and 1 5 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 1 5 4 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. thirteen— producing convictions and impressions, of “ the perpe­ tuity, sacredness, and importance” of the institution, to be carried with them through life, and through them reproduced in thousands of other minds. And from the time of their publication, some­ where between 1817 and 1819, the eloquent prelections must have served in America and in this country to awaken similar con­ victions in multitudes of readers. The late Bishop of Calcutta, referring to the author, said, “ This last name deserves especial notice. Dr. Dwight, as well as his illustrious countryman, Edwards, has honoured the American school of theology—rapidly increasing in importance— with a most convincing and able discus­ sion of the question in all its branches, both theoretical and practical: they perhaps form the best of our modern treatises, though it would be unjust to Dr. Humphrey, of Amherst College, to withhold a tribute of applause from hi3 excellent Essays.” 1 If America had produced no other works on the Sabbath than have been named, it would, her disadvantages and comparative youth considered, have been no small honour; but we have to add her more recent contributions to the argument and literature of the subject, which surpass previous exertions in number, if not in worth. There are the excellent Manual of Professor Agnew, with its able Introductory Essay by Professor Samuel Miller, and the very interesting Reports and Permanent Documents of “ the American and Foreign Sabbath Union.” Four of these Docu­ ments, reprinted by the American Tract Society, with the name of Dr. Justin Edwards, Secretary to the Sabbath Union, as author, form The Sabbath Manual. There are also works by Phelps, Drs. Stone and Barnes, which we have not seen. Drs. Emmons, Woods, and Wayland, the last avowedly borrowing from Gurney, devote portions of their able writings to the institution. The Rev. L. Coleman has brought his historical lore to the enforce­ ment of Sabbatic claims and duties in his Christian Antiquities, and Historical Sketch of the Christian Sabbath in the Bibliotheca Sacra (1844)- Dr. Stevens has eloquently pleaded the obliga­ tions and blessings of the Lord’s day in a Sermon, and Professor Dabney has ably discussed “ the Sabbath Controversy” in the Southern Presbyterian Review. The Tract Society has printed a 1 Dr. Daniel Wilson’s Seven Sermons. Preface. UNITED STATES. 1 5 5 number of useful publications on the observance of the institution, including valuable tracts by Drs. Plumer, Spring, Nevins, and Schmucker; and the Sabbath Committee of New York, amidst various zealous and successful exertions for checking Sabbath desecration, has issued, with the same view, some important do­ cuments. But among American publications of recent'times, we have seen no abler defences of the weekly holy day than two articles which have appeared in the Princeton Review, under the titles, “ Sunday Mails” (1831) and “ Sunday Laws” (1859), the latter said to be from the pSn of Dr. Charles Hodge. We have little to state as to what has been written in America on the other side of the question. The Sabbatarians, whose Church membership is said to be 7000, have, by a magazine, a newspaper, and a Tract Society, endeavoured to raise bulwarks for the defence of the seventh-day Sabbath. We have before us a series of books and tracts, old and new, issued by the Society. There are two histories of the body— one by Clarke in 1811, re­ cording its rise and progress in the States, the other by Mrs. Davis in 1851, embracing its annals in all ages and lands. But there have been and are more formidable opponents of the Christian Sabbath than the Sabbatarians. An American Review, now ex­ tinct, propounded some years ago the doctrine that the Sabbath was not originally a day devoted to the exercises of religion, and that it is now most appropriately kept by festivity and amusement. The article was headed Sunday Mails, and drew forth the able reply under the same title already mentioned. There appeared in 1853 a volume in which the question is discussed, Whether there is any authority for the Christian Sabbath 1— the Rev. J. N. Brown supporting the affirmative, and W. B. Taylor contending for the negative. And we observe from the paper Sunday Laws that in­ stances of the most daring opposition to the Sabbath have lately occurred in the country, in which a William Logan Fisher, and some imported Germans, have been conspicuous. At a meeting of the latter, it was resolved that “ any attempt, direct or indirect, to exact the keeping of some holy day, enjoined, or supposed to be enjoined, by the Jewish or Christian Scriptures, as the first or seventh day of the week, is alike defiant of natural right and constitutional law.” Fisher, in his History of the Institution 1 5 6 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. of the Sabbath-day, contends against Sunday laws, his reviewer informs us, on the threefold ground, that the Bible is not the Word of God ; that the Bible itself does not require such an ob­ servance of the Sabbath as our Sunday laws assume ; and that, admitting the Divine origin of the Old Testament, and conceding that the observance of one day in seven as a holy Sabbath to God is therein enjoined, it was a purely Jewish institution, and is not binding upon Christians. “ It is well for people to understand each other,” says the reviewer, who concludes a very thorough exposure of the lawless liberty claimed by Fisher and the Germans, in these words of plainness and power : “ This country was settled by Protestant Christians. They possessed the land ; they estab­ lished its institutions ; they formed themselves into towns, states, and nation. From the nature of the case, regarding the Bible as the Word of God binding the conscience of every man with Divine authority, they were governed by it in all their organizations, whether for business or civil polity. Others have since come into the country by thousands ; some Papists, some Jews, some Infi­ dels, some Atheists. All were welcomed ; all are admitted to equal rights and privileges. All are allowed to acquire property, to vote in all elections, made eligible to all offices, and invested with an equal influence in all public concerns. All are allowed to worship as they please, or not at all, if they please. No man is molested for his religion, or for his want of religion. No man is required to profess any particular form of faith, or to join any religious association. Is not this liberty enough 1 It seems not. Our ‘ Free Germans ’ and other Anti-Sabbatarians insist upon it that we must turn infidels, give up our God, our Saviour, and our Bible, so far as all public or governmental action is concerned. They require that the joint stock into which they have been re­ ceived as partners, and in which they constitute even numerically a very small minority, should be conducted according to their prin­ ciples, and not according to ours. They demand, not merely that they may be allowed to disregard the Sabbath, but that the public business must go on on that day ; that all public servants must be employed ; all public property, highways, and railroads should be used. They say we must not pray in our legislative bodies, or have chaplains in our hospitals, prisons, navy, or army; that we must SCOTLAND. 1 5 7 not introduce the Bible into our public schools, or do anything in a public capacity which implies that we are Protestant Christians. Those men do not know what Protestant Christians are. It is their characteristic, as they humbjjj hope and believe, to respect the rights of other men, and stand up for their own. And, there­ fore, they say to all— Infidels and Atheists— to all who demand that the Bible shall not be the rule of action for us as individuals, and as a Government, you ask what it is impossible can be granted. We must obey God. We must carry our religion into our families, our workshops, our banking-houses, our municipal and other governments ; and if you cannot live with Christians, you must go elsewhere.”1 That the sanguine hope of another American writer, as ex­ pressed in. the following words, may be fulfilled, is devoutly to be wished : “ If the wise, and good, and patriotic' in our land per­ severe, and especially if ministers of the gospel generally bring the influence of the gospel to bear on this subject, the day, there is every reason to believe, is not far distant when, by the blessing of the God of the Sabbath, the greater part of our nation will be, at least externally, a Sabbath-keeping people.” 2 SCOTLAND. It may to some appear out of place to introduce, under the head of controversies on the Sabbath, a country where we ought to look for the fruits of peace and sanctity rather than for -the turmoils and desolations of war. And it is .true that, from the Reformation to the present time, the Scottish Church has had but one doctrine on the subject; and that for a long period general acclaim accorded to the nation a distinction above all others for a sacred regard to the Lord’s day. But besides the aversion to holy restraints and duties common to human nature everywhere, the peculiar exposure of the Scots to foreign aggression against their worship and liberties, and the perfervidum ingenium, which led them to carry the war for truth and right into other lands, have 1 British and Foreign Evangelical Review for January 1860. 8 Dr Schmuoker'a Appeal in behalf of the Christian Sabbath, p. 15. 8 1 5 8 SKETCHES OP SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. engaged them in Sabbatic contests not a few, and originated a Sabbatic literature equal in value, if not in amount, to that of any country. For the greater part of tlu^e centuries has the institution en­ countered strong opposition from without. A Scotsman, James vi., from being a boastful admirer of Presbytery, became its avowed and bitter foe, and after his accession to the throne of England, speedily availed himself of his increased power to attempt the subversion of the religious polity and rights, including the Sabbath, of his native land. Charles i. was equally disposed, though less able, to carry on the nefarious work. The measures with the same view adopted in the reigns of Charles il and James 11.—■ measures dooming within a period of twenty-eight years no fewer than 18,000 persons to death, or to sufferings worse than death— have certainly, for folly and wickedness, been rarely paralleled in the history of any country. During such a time it was to be pre­ sumed that the Lord’s day would be trampled under foot by one class, who, indeed, selected it as the season for their bloodiest deeds, and that it could not be observed by the other as they -would. But the doctrine of its sanctity formed a part of the testimony, which they earnestly maintained, and for which they were willing to die. It has been well said, that the sacrifices of missionaries and of their supporters for the propagation of Christianity, so honourable to our times, are not for a moment to be compared with the expenditure of suffering and substance which its conser­ vation cost our fathers. And more effectual than even persecution has been the influence of imported people and customs from Eng­ land and Ireland for impairing the religion and Sabbath observ­ ances of Scotland. But evil has been to some extent the occasion of good, and it is a pleasing reflection that, despite the follies and cruelties of the Stuart kings, the deadening influence of prelacy and moderation, and, in our own day, the corrupting power of English wealth and Irish poverty, the popular belief and feeling of the country have, from the period of the Reformation down to the present time, been eminently Sabbatical. Apart from the press, much has been done to secure for Scot­ land her hallowed day of rest. The Parliament from time to time passed Acts, for the most part suggested by the Church SCOTLAND. 1 5 9 Courts, which, according to the best authorities, amounted ulti­ mately to a very complete legal provision for the protection of the Lord’s day against open desecration. Still more numerous are the Acts of her supreme ecclesiastical court, which not only in 1566 and 1575 abjured all human holidays, but by its decrees, and the direct exercise of discipline, did much subsequently to maintain sound doctrine and right practice in reference to the weekly holy day throughout the nation. Three instances are worthy of particular notice. One of these occurred in 1596, when the members of the General Assembly were stirred to “ great searching of heart ” as to their treatment of the Fourth and other Commandments of the Divine Law, melted to genuine sorrow for sin, and warmed with a love which faithfully and boldly extended its care to his Majesty’s household, the whole resulting in the spread of similar exercises and feelings, and in a general reforma­ tion over the land. Another belongs to the year 1638, when the Assembly, so celebrated for its connexion with the Second Reformation, excommunicated the greater part of the prelates for, with other grave offences, their shameless profanations of the Lord’s day. The ratification of the Westminster Confession of Faith, with the full arrangement of the form of worship and discipline, by the General Assembly of 1647, which completed the Reformation, is the third instance. The inferior courts were no less watchful over the interests of practical religion. The Synod of Lothian, for example, censured Spotswood, minister at Calder, afterwards the noted Archbishop, and Law, minister at Kirkliston, for playing at foot-ball on the Lord’s day,1 The Session records of the latter part of the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth, teem with proofs of the diligence with which ministers and elders sought to promote the piety and morals of the people, and especially their i Mr. John Davidson, minister atPrestonpans, bywhose powerful appeals theAssembly of 1596 was so deeply impressed, was Moderator of the Synod at the time, and urged that the offenders should be deposed, “ but the Synod agreed not thereto; and when they were called in, he said, ‘ Come in, ye pretty foot-ball men—the Synod hath or­ dained you only to be rebuked; ’ and turning to the Synod, he said, ‘ And now, bre­ thren, let me tell you what reward you shall get for your lenity; these two men shall trample on your necks, and the necks of theministrie of Scotland.’”—Livingstone’s Memorable Characteristics. Wod. Soc. Sel. Biograph. voL ii. p. 296. 1 6 0 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. obedience to the Fourth Commandment. Burnet, when referring to the time immediately prior to the Restoration, says :— “ They kept scandalous persons under a severe discipline : for breach of Sab­ bath, for an oath, or the least disorder in drunkenness, persons were cited before the church-session, that consisted of ten or twelve of the chief of the parish, who, with the minister, had this care upon them ; and were solemnly reproved for it.” 1 Among the evils inherited from Rome, was the custom of performing comedies on the Lord’s day, which continued for some years after the death of Knox, but was increasingly discountenanced, and ere long, through the influence of the sessions and magistrates, discon­ tinued. In 1754, the sessions commenced the practice of em­ ploying individuals of their number to traverse the towns on Sabbaths and other seasons of public worship for the purpose of causing notice to be taken of such as should be found “ vaging abroad upon the streets, and of having them cited before the session.” 1 2 But probably the faithful public ministrations, and the assidu­ ous labours in private, of the excellent ministers, with whom Scot­ land has been more or less favoured in all periods of her reformed history, have contributed more than anything else to the forma­ tion and maintenance of her character as a Sabbath-keeping country. When we think of such a man presiding successively over the students of Glasgow and St. Andrews as Andrew Melville, who could in the Privy-Council pronounce Archbishop Bancroft a Sabbath-breaker; of John Welch, on one occasion weaning an easy-minded minister from his “ bow-butts and archery” on the Sabbath afternoon, by engaging him to spend that time with him­ self and his friends, John Stuart and Hugh Kennedy, in prayer, and, on another, declaring to a gentleman, with whom he had in vain remonstrated against the patronizing of foot-ball and other pastimes on the Lord’s day, that he should be cast out from house and hold, words which the unhappy man had soon to confess were 1 Hist, of his Own T im (1850), p. 102. 2 The persons so employed were called Searchers. Principal Lee, in his evidence given before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1832, says, that the practice continued for a century and a half. But similar measures have been resorted to oecfi,- sicmally in later times. SCOTLAND. 1 6 1 verified; of Henderson, who, when Charles i. had attended the High Church in the forenoon of the Sabbath after his arrival in Edinburgh in 1641, but spent the afternoon in playing at golf, conversed on the enormity with his Majesty, who afterwards gave constant attendance, as he did also at family worship performed morning and evening in the palace by that faithful minister ; and of William Guthrie, who, by giving an equivalent for the profits of each day’s shooting, could prevail on a parishioner to exchange on the Sabbath the fowling-piece and the field, for the Bible and the Church, till he learned that godliness was its own- sufficient re­ ward, and became, as an elder, an auxiliary to his minister in winning men from evil; when we think of such individuals— specimens of the ministry of their time— we see how adapted the means were to make the Church of Scotland the “ Philadelphia” portrayed by Kirkton and Burnet. And when we remember Halyburton’s dying counsels to his boy David, “ not to come near anybody that would swear, lie, speak what was bad, or break the Sab bath B oston’s lasting penitence for a youthful violation of the Fourth Commandment; Ebenezer Erskine’s searching words from the pulpit, “ I am ready to judge that folk’s acquaintance with God himself is known by the regard they show to his holy day;” Alexander MoncriefFs pungent answer to the man who demanded to know his right to advise him against a Sabbath ex­ cursion, “ You will learn that at the day of j u d g m e n t a n d Brown of Haddington’s saying, by which he endeavoured to regu­ late himself and his family, that “ conversation on the common affairs of life, or even on the more external and trivial matters of the Church, on the Lord’s day, was unsuitable to the spiritual exercises of the day, and offensive to G o d w h e n we remember such men, we recognise the worthy successors of the Scottish Reformers and Covenanters, and the fitting means of perpetuating among their countrymen the honours and blessings of the day of rest. In or has Scotland, amidst difficulties of no ordinary kind, merely maintained the Sabbath at home. She has furthered its interests abroad. She helped to equip Teellinck for his successful contest in Zealand. Her Welch, Boyd, Forbes, Dury, Andrew Melville, Brown, and Crawford, with others, exemplified, and in some in­ stances publicly defended, their principles in reference to the weekly holy day, in various parts of the Continent Livingstone, Blair, and their compeers, spread those principles in Ireland. The stand made by Scotland for her Church and freedom had no slight influence on the summoning of the Long Parliament, and on the assertion by Englishmen of their down-trodden Sabbatic and other rights— a struggle which she materially helped also to maintain. And though she failed to secure permanently for England an ecclesiastical constitution like her own, her efforts were not fruitless, as, to mention nothing else, they were emi­ nently tributary to the production of that noble Confession of Faith, and kindred documents, which have been the means of lasting good, though chiefly to her own people, yet largely also to the inhabitants of other regions of the globe.1 Rutherford en­ tered the lists with Saltmarsh. But this brings us to the Sab­ batic literature of Scotland, a goodly portion of which we owe to the efforts of her sons to vindicate their views of the Lord’s day in foreign lands. We have met with no very early specimen of Scottish author­ ship on the subject. Writers may be found— like Cowper in his Holy Alphabet; Malcolm, in his Exposition of the Acts; David Calderwood, in his Altare Damascenum; and John Weemse of Lathocker, in his Christian Synagogue— who briefly express the views of their country. The Exposition of the Laws of Moses, by the last-mentioned author, which appeared in 1632, is the first Scottish work, so far as we know', that treats with considerable fulness of the institution. The works of Weemse generally give evidence of “ very considerable learning and information.” In the lie-examination of the Five Articles of Perth, belonging to the year 1636, Caldenvood has what may-be called a Treatise on the Sabbath, in which he defends the commonly-received doctrine with learning and power. Dr. Guild, of Aberdeen, wrote in 1637 an earnest remonstrance against a particular form of Sabbath pro­ fanation in his neighbourhood. But the next writer, who, though he resided and published in England, was born and educated in 11 am informed that Mr. Henderson had a chief hand in drawing up the Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and particularly the Directory for Worship and Ordination.— Wodrov) Correspondence, vol. iii- PP- 32, 83. 1 6 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. SCOTLAND. 1 6 3 Scotland, calls for more particular notice, both as the work is one of special merit, and the author little known. In 1639, when the reign of terror in England was approaching its climax, Dr. Thomas Young, then vicar of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, issued an anonymous treatise in defence of the Lord’s day. To do so at all in such circumstances proved his zeal and courage ; and yet that the Hies Dominica appeared w'ithout the name of writer, pub­ lisher, printer, or the place where it was prepared or printed, was a sign of the times, and, along with the fact that no prosecution followed, showed that the author knew how to temper his ardour with the discretion which has been called the better part of valour. The volume having, thirty-two years after its publication, been commended by Baxter as “ the moderatest, soundest, and strongest treatise on the subject that he had seen,” many were led to in­ quire after it, and a translation of it, which a worthy knight had by him, was published in 1672. In a Preface to the translation, Baxter extols the author as a man “ eminent in his time for great learning, judgment, piety, and humility; but especially for his acquaintance with the writings of the ancient teachers of the churches, and the doctrine and practice of former ages.” Dr. Young was born at Loncarty, Perthshire, in 1587 or 1588, studied at St. Andrews, settled in London, or its neighbourhood, as a teacher,1 was preceptor of John Milton, and, in succession, minister to the congregation of English merchants at Hamburg, vicar for thirty years of Stowmarket, minister of Duke’s Place, London, and a member of the Westminster Assembly, and master of Jesus’ College, Cambridge. From this last-mentioned situation, which he filled with great ability, he was ejected for refusing the engagement, or promise of fidelity to the Commonwealth as esta­ blished without a King or House of Lords. He was one of the authors of Smedymnuus, having, according to Baillie, contributed “ the most part” of it. The man who filled so many important offices with the highest, reputation, and who impressed alike the experienced Baxter and the youthful Milton, with feelings of re­ gard and admiration, the latter representing him as the half of his life, and as having inspired him with the love of poetry, must i For these facts we are indebted to the researches of Masson.—See his Life of Midton, pp. 53, 54. . 1 6 4 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. have been distinguished by intellectual gifts and moral excellence of no common order.1 Among the many other Scottish writers who did honour to their country and to the seventeenth century, and who asserted the Divine claims of the Sabbath, we are not aware of any one who wrote a separate treatise or tract on the institution except Brown of Wamphray, and Crawford, whose able works have been men­ tioned in connexion with the controversies in Holland. Some of them, however, handled the subject in their expositions of the Decalogue. William Colville, Principal of the University of Edin­ burgh, has devoted to the Fourth Commandment some seven­ teen pages of his Philosophia Moralis Christiana, which appeared in 1670. The views of the celebrated Leighton, successively Presbyterian minister of Newbottle, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Bishop of Dunblane, and Archbishop of Glasgow, are more briefly, though not less decidedly, expressed. And the Law Unsealed of the eminent James Durham, published in 1675 by his widow, contains a very full and able discussion of Sabbatic doctrine and duty, and discovers the learning and deep piety which are evident in his other writings. It received the warm commen­ dation of Dr. Owen, and its numerous editions attest the large measure of popular favour which it has won. Robert Barclay, the Quaker, dissented from the popular doctrine of the Sabbath, “ knowing no moral obligation by t h e F o u r t h C o m m a n d , or elsewhere, to keep the f ir s t d a y o f t h e w e e k more than any other,” but keeping it, nevertheless, for reasons of necessity, equity, mercy, and apostolic example. In the following century, while notices of the institution may be found, only a few contributions, in a separate form, or to any extent, were made to its argument and literature. Bishop Burnet devotes one of his Fourteen Ser­ mons, and J. S[mall], “ a Presbyter of the Episcopal Church of 1 See Milton’s Elegia Quarto, ad Thomam Junium, and his Familiar Epistles, of which two are addressed to Dr. Young. In the Elegy the poet says “ Ille quidem est animae plusquam pars altera nostrae, Dimidio vitae vivere cogor ego. Primus ego Aonios illo praeunte recessus Lustrabam, et bifidi sacra vireta jugi; . Pieriosque hausi latices, Clidque favente, Castalio sparsi laeta ter ora mero ” SCOTLAND. 1 6 5 Scotland,” a tract, to the subject in 1713, the latter being a de­ fence of the morality of the Sabbath, in answer, particularly, to the arguments of Philip Limborch. There came out in the same or preceding year the well-known Treatise of Willison, his earliest work, which must, in its various editions, have been a blessing to his country. The Sabbatism of the People of God, by John Glas, appeared in 1747, and is to be found, with his Three Divine Rests, in his collected works. But nowhere is there to be found an account of the doctrines and duties of the Sabbath— clearer, more satisfactory, or more adapted for general usefulness— than is given in the second part of the Synod's or Fisher's Catechism, which appeared in 1760. The biographer of Mr. Fisher, referring to this exposition of the Shorter Catechism, says— “ At the very first meeting of the Associate (Burgher) Synod,. Mr. Fisher, along with Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, was appointed to carry forward a wise and important plan, which had been under the consideration of the Associate body in its undivided state.” 1 Fisher was followed by Brown of Haddington in his Christian Journal, System of Theology, and other works. John Barclay, the Berean, having in 1776 published an Essay on the First Day of the Week, upholding its sacred claims, a reply by “ a Christian Church,” and affirming, wTith Edmund Porter, that Christ is the Christian’s only Sabbath, came out in the same year. In 1778 we for the first time meet with a Scottish working man— “ a tradesman of Montrose”-—taking part in the controversy? But the present century has in Scotland, as in England, been peculiarly affluent in publications having for their object the illus­ tration and defence of the weekly sacred rest. After an excel­ lent anonymous pamphlet of 1800, there appeared Essays by James Mitchell (1802), Samuel Giffillan3 (1804), and Patrick M'Farlane (1805). The celebrated Poem of Grahame was given to the world in 1804, reaching its third edition in the following 1 Narrative of the Life of Rev. James Fisher, by John Brown, D.D. (2 writer published a third edition of his Treatise in 1786, disclosing himself as Alexander Jackson, silversmith,” and in that year a resident in Alloa. s The fact that this Essay, which in substance had appeared in the Christian Maga­ zine towards the close of the preceding century, passed in the course of twenty years through fourteen editions, one of them in the Gaelic language, may perhaps justify us for offering no apology of filial partiality and gratitude for this special notice. I—. -------- ------g* 166 . SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES. year, and its fourth in 1806. John Struthers, a shoemaker, and no ordinary man in head or heart, printed a small edition of his Poor M ans Sabbath in 1804, which was “ received with such a degree of indulgent partiality as to induce him to offer a new edi­ tion thereof” in 1805. In 1809, Mr. (afterwards Professor) Duncan of Midcalder, contributed to the Christian Magazine two papers, illustrating with much ability a variety of positions on the subject, and after some time there followed at intervals publi­ cations by Wemyss, M‘Beth (two editions), Glen, and Parker. ^ Of a sermon by Dr. Chalmers, the late Bishop of Calcutta said, “ It is in the most powerful and awakening manner of its author, and of itself settles the question.” 1 Two very able and erudite papers, the one on “ The Origin of New Year’s Day Rites” (Christian Instructor, Feb. 1829), the other on “ The Weekly Division of Time” (Edinburgh Theol. Magazine, Dec. 1829 and Jan. 1830), did great honour to the writer, the Rev. Alex. Nisbet, of the Secession Church, Portsburgh, Edinburgh, then a student of divinity.2 Next in order were published Letters, etc., to Dr. Robert Hamilton, combating his doctrines of an abrogated Sabbath and Decalogue, and works by Forbes, Gavin Struthers, M'Farlane, and Burns (Kilsyth). In 1832, Dr. Wardlaw gave to the world Discourses, than which no work has more logically and lucidly treated the theory, or more impressively enforced the duties of the institution. This volume was succeeded in the same year by an excellent tract, “ The Christian Sabbath Vindicated, by William [afterwards Dr.] Innes, minister of the gospel.” Thoughts, by Douglas of Cavers, only too few ; and Dobie’s Law of Scotland relative to the observance of the day, belong to 1833. Sermons by White, and Tracts by James Haldane and a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, bring us to 1840, when there was issued what is said in the title-page to be the seventh edition of “ Mis­ taken Views regarding the Observance of the Sabbath, by Alexander Marjoribanks of that Ilk,” who seems to have gained for himself 1 Dr. D. Wilson’s Seven Sermons, Preface. The Sermon referred to, On the Christian Sabbath, appeared in 1823. Striking and valuable though it is, two others, not less so, followed in subsequent editions of Dr. Chalmers’s Sermons—the one, on The Christianity of the Sabbath, the other on The Advantages of a Fixed Sabbath. 5 Eeprinted in the author’s Remains (1835), edited by the Eev. Dr. Taylor, then of Auchtermuchty. SCOTLAND. 1 6 7 the unenviable distinction of being one of the earliest Scottish writers who scoffingly assailed the institution. On the same side, though not identical in spirit or views, succeeded the lucubrations of Anti-Sabbatos, Taylor, H. C. Wright, Aytoun, Russell, two or three anonymous pamphlets, J. N. Paton, and Allan Clark, an elder of the Church ; and, on the other side, publications by Murray (Morton), D. T. K. Drummond, M‘Farlane, Robert Haldane (two tracts), Bruce, Fairbaim, and Davidson, in 1842; Carson, in 1844 ; Lorimer, Bridges, Thomson (Leith), Nixon, Somerville, Thomson (Dr. A.), and James M‘Beth in 1847. We have now to mention two efforts on a large scale for pro­ moting right views and practice in relation to the Lord’s day— efforts suggested by the ingenious benevolence, and sustained by the munificent liberality of one individual. To John Henderson of Park, “ the religious world is indebted for the origin and wide cir­ culation” of “ the tracts on the Sabbath,” which were published in the course of the years 1847 and 1848, and of which in a col­ lected form, two editions have appeared under the title, The Chris­ tian Sabbath. This work, which is the joint production of seventeen ministers, belonging to eight denominations of Christians, forms a remarkably complete and interesting treatise on its subject. To the same person we owe the conception and accomplishment of a measure which is without parallel in any department of literature. As the multiplication of railway and other travelling facilities on the Lord’s day, was defended on the ground of its benefit to work­ ing men, he determined, towards the close of 1847, to appeal to them on the question, and offered three prizes for the three best essays upon The Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath to the Labouring Classes. In the short space of about three months 1045 essays were received. The adjudicators awarded the first prize to John A. Quinton, journeyman printer, Ipswich; the second, to John Younger, shoemaker, St. Boswell’s Green ; and the third, to David larquhar, machinist, Dundee. The measure obtained the patronage of the Queen and Prince Albert. His Royal Highness contributed five additional prizes. The British public made up the number to more than 100. The publication of the first three, and of many more essays, including The Pearl of Days, by a female, which was not admitted into the competi- 1 6 8 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. tion, has furnished a body of evidence, fit to form a supplement to the mass of facts collected by the House of Commons’ Com­ mittee in 1832. The work of composition may have been the means of intellectual and moral improvement to one thousand and forty-five minds. And the dispersion of their writings in great profusion over the land,1 was calculated to excite inquiry, reflec­ tion, and right feeling in many more. But with regret we add, that even a few of Scotland’s working men proved false to the religion which had elevated their country and their class— false too, at a time, when their brethren were flooding the land with testimonies to the necessity and value of a weekly day consecrated entirely to sacred rest. In 1849, one of this stamp had so little of the spirit of a Scotsman, not to say a Christian, as to put forth his Sabbath versus Sunday, and another uttered in 1852 a sym­ pathizing Voice from the Workshop. Happily, however, two or even ten of such writers bear a small proportion to the number of friendly essayists, among 700 of whom there were 225 resident, and many non-resident, natives of Scotland.2 The singular list of Scottish Anti-Sabbatic writers is closed with a copious defence of the Saturday Sabbath, by James A. Begg ; a voluminous publication by Robert Cox ; the novel impiety of a Sunday Steamer vindicated by its abettors ; Dr. R. Hamilton’s Reply to Professor Miller ; a lecture by John Gordon ; and The Whole Doctrine of Calvin about the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day, a compilation by the already named Mr. Cox. We , have to men- * Hon, on the other hand, as upholding the doctrine of their country,— Laing, in 1848 ; the author of The Sabbath at Home and Abroad, Pyott and Crease, who both write in poetic strains, with Rennison, in 1849 ; Lewis, Hunter, Dr. Greville, and the author of An Address on the Evils of Sabbath Labour, in 1850 ; D. C. A. Agnew and Oliver, in 1851; the writer of The Chris­ tian! s Sabbath, and D. Gorrie, author of The Sabbath, a Prize Poem, in 1853 ; Professor Miller, Stewart, and Catherine Sin­ clair, in 1854 ; Pirret, and the authors of The Claims of the Sabbath, in 1855 ; M‘Fie and Dr. Candlish, in 1856 ; Colvin, in 1857; J. M. Pollock, the writer of The Love of God in the i To the number of 609,750 copies.—Jordan in Religious Condition of Christendom. - (1852), p. 132 1 Ihid. p. 131. SCOTLAND. 169 Sabbath, and Court against Langley, in 1858; and M'Naughtan, in 1859. The marked contrast between the two classes of writers who have been enumerated, is significant. Those of them who have opposed the prevailing views of the institution number about twenty. They have flourished within the last quarter of a cen­ tury. They include no name of note. And, except Begg and Cox, they have dogmatized on a matter which they been at no great pains to understand. It is otherwise with the authors who have maintained the doctrine of a Sabbath substantially the same from the beginning to the end of the world. They are up­ wards of a hundred. They extend over a period of about three centuries. They are for the most part known to have been quali­ fied by education, character, and experience to write on the sacred theme. And not a few of them have been distinguished by their learning, talents, piety and beneficence, as Weemse, Calderwood, Young, Durham, Leighton, Brown, Burnet, Willison, the Haldanes, Duncan, Chalmers, Wardlaw,— not to name others, who still live among us, honoured for their acquirements, usefulness, and worth.1 Similar discussions to those that have been sketched have taken place in other countries, particularly in Germany and France. But we must pass them over. Dr. Hengstenberg has traced the German controversies on the subject, though we must say with a partial pen. If we reflected on the moral condition of mankind, the dis­ cordant views which have been held in every department of knowledge, and the difficulty of arriving at certainty in many even of the simplest matters of fact, it would not surprise us that on the subject of the Sabbath there should have existed at any time a variety of sentiment. Nor will any mind that is sincere in the search after truth, allow a circumstance, common to so many things, to prejudice the particular one now under con- 1 Of Scottish publications that have appeared since the preceding list was prepared for onr first edition, we add for 1860, “ A Few Observations on the Sanctification of the Sabbath," by James Young, an elder of the U.P. Church; for 1861, an article on Dr. Hessey’s Bampton Lecture in the “ North British Review,” No. 67, and “ The Sabbath Viewed in the Light of Reason,” etc., by the writer of this note ; and for 1862, “ Our Scottish Sabbath,” by Dr. A. Thomson. 1 7 0 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. sideration. Let it be remembered that the magnitude of the in­ terests involved in the disposal of so large a portion of our limited and precious time, would warrant every exertion to reach a right decision, although the matter were much more difficult than it is— that the truth, after all, may be easily discovered by the honest inquirer— and that while the theories on the Sabbath, after they have been reduced to their proper categories, and esti­ mated at their real worth, may be found neither so numerous nor so formidable as at first sight appeared, there has perhaps never been a topic on which a greater number of the wise and good have been agreed than the divine authority, the sanctity, and the value of a weekly day of rest and prayer. These theories have to some extent been set forth in preceding pages. But it is desirable that the most important of them should be presented in a compendious form, so far as this can be done in a case in which so many writers, more or less agreed in certain views, have each some notion of his own. The general points in dispute concerning the institution have been its import­ ance__its authority— its date and duration— the proportion and distribution of its time— the rule of its observance— and the manner in which it should be enforced. A weekly holy day is re­ pudiated by some because they hold all days to be alike common —by others, because they hold all days to be alike sacred. The Sabbatarian affirms, that the seventh day of the wpek is the Divinely authorized, immutable Sabbath of all time, while the great majority of Christians maintain that “ the obligation of that day ceased, together with the abrogation of [ceased together with] the other Jewish rites and ceremonies, at the death of Christ.” 1 The claims of a weekly rest are admitted by various classes as a salutary arrangement of the State, or as a necessary ordinance of the Church, or as recommended by Jewish institution and apostolic practice__or as an express appointment of Heaven. Of those who believe in the Divine authority of the Lord’s day, there are several classes. One class consider it as having no connexion with a Sabbath in Eden, which they deny to have had any exist­ ence, or with the Sabbath of Sinai, which, they assert, has been abrogated. A second class, conceding the primitive institution i Tridentine Catechism on the Third [Fourth] Commandment. SUMMARY OF OPINIONS. 171 of a Sabbath, view neither that nor the Jewish Sabbath— both, they say, having passed away with their respective economies— as constituting any formal reason for hallowing the Lord’s day, the authority and sanctity of which, however, they strenuously maintain. And a third class plead, that the first day of the week has, by the ordination of Jesus Christ, succeeded to the seventh day Sabbath, not as the latter was applied according to the judi­ cial and ceremonial laws of the Jews, but as it was appointed for man in Paradise, embodied in the Decalogue, and regulated by the fourth of its precepts. A variety of tenets, too, have been held with respect to the nature of the Sabbath law in the Fourth Commandment, some regarding it as a ceremony which has dis­ appeared ; others, as partly ceremonial and temporary, partly moral and enduring ; a third class as simply positive ; a fourth, as not positive at all, but throughout natural, moral, and un­ changeable even as concerns the seventh day of the week ; and a fifth, as natural, moral, and positive, or moral-positive. Some conceive that the Lord’s day ought to be sacredly observed throughout all its hours, admitting, however, exceptional cases of necessity and mercy; others, that its demands of sacred service are satisfied by a few hours spent in public worship, the remain­ ing time being available, in the opinion of one class, for such em­ ployments and recreations as do no violence to, outward decency and decorum, but, in the view of others, for everything that may be lawfully done on any other day. A difference of sentiment on the manner in which the institution ought to be dealt with by the State has existed, but has excited little discussion— some believ­ ing that the Sabbath is a matter which lies beyond' the sphere of civil enactments ; others deeming it right that it should be pro­ tected, and certain outward violations of its requirements should be restrained and punished by the magistrate, either, according to one opinion, for political reasons, or, according to another, be­ cause Sabbath-breaking is, like murder, a transgression of the Divine law. To this enumeration of theories may be added that which interprets the days of God’s working and rest at the crea­ tion as denoting, not common days, but periods of long duration, the dogma being employed by some to annihilate, by others, to favour, a primal and perennial day of rest. 1 7 2 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. That a weekly day of entire consecration to repose from secular labour, and to the immediate service of God, cases of necessity and mercy excepted, was at the creation of the world divinely ap­ pointed for man, was promulgated from Sinai in the Decalogue, and, being transferred by Jesus Christ from the end to the beginning of the week, was by Him recognised as an ordinance of the Chris­ tian dispensation, and as still under the rule of the Fourth Com­ mandment,— is a doctrine which it is the object of this volume to uphold, illustrate, and recommend. And in endeavouring to ac­ complish this object, it is our purpose,— First, to adduce proofs from reason and experience of the excellence, value, and Divine origin of such a holy day. Second, to present the testimony of revelation to its Divine authority, its divinely-prescribed duties, and its divinely-estimated importance. Third, to exhibit from his’tory evidence corroborative both of the proofs from reason and of the testimony of revelation on the subject. Fourth, to vindicate the institution against opposing theories, schemes, and arguments ; and Fifth, to enforce its claims against practical perversions and neglect. PROOFS FROM REASON AND EXPERIENCE OF THE EXCELLENCE AND DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH C H AP TE R I. PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS OP THE SABBATH. “ I feel as if God had, by giving the Sabbath, given fifty-two springs in the year." Coleridge. “ I am prepared to affirm that, to the studious especially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well spent—spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic—a Sunday given to the soul—is the best of all means of refreshment to the mere intellect.”—I saac Taylor. The requisites to man’s physical wellbeing may be compre­ hended under food, air, exercise, rest, sleep, cleanliness, and a cheerful state of mind. Exercise is necessary, not only in many cases to the removal of disease, but in general to its prevention, and to the continued soundness and vigour of the entire animal system. To be bene­ ficial, however, it must be moderate. Excess here is as fatal as defect. And it must be regular. There must be alternations of exertion and repose, the latter, particularly in the form of sleep, being needed for recruiting the nervous energy which labour has exhausted, and for abating the activity of the circulation which would else acquire a rapidity incompatible with life. Man ought to go forth to his work and to his labour until the evening, per­ forming with regularity and without oppression his daily task under the eye of day. Those who work must work while it is day. They that sleep, sleep in the night. It is then that deep sleep 1 7 4 a d v a n t a g e s o f t h e s a b b a t h . falleth on men. Nature itself, in its vicissitudes of day and night, instructs us when to labour and when to indulge repose. But in addition to the sleep and refreshment of night, there is need, from time to time, of a day of rest. “ Although the night apparently equalizes th'e circulation, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the attainment of a long life— hence one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation to perfect by its repose the animal system.”1 By the periodical interposition of a day’s respite from labour, a check is given to a course of toil, which would speedily destroy the work­ man, or, in other words, an opportunity is afforded for the rest which physiologists and physicians judge necessary for a season in many cases of disease, and recommend to be sought, at stated in­ tervals, by all who would live long and see happy days. They tell us that the animal frame, whether in man or beast, can sus­ tain only a certain amount of continuous exertion, and that the transgression of this limit, if persisted in, must, at no distant period, impair the constitution. “ I believe,” says Dr. Carpenter, “ that it is the opinion of those who work many horses in coach­ ing, etc., that it is better to work a horse (say ten miles a day) for four days, and to give him an entire rest on the fifth, than to ("work him eight miles a day for the whole five.” 2 In the case of human beings, the earlier decay, the more prevalent diseases, and the briefer average life of working men than of the upper and middle classes of society, together with the uniform proportion which these evils bear to the amount of unremitting toil, confirm the conclusions of science. Taking the whole of the French population, human life, according to the estimate of M. Villeriffi, is protracted twelve and one-half years among the wealthy be­ yond its duration among the poor. In England, too, the difference is greatly in favour of the former class, as appears from the Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners for 1842, where thirteen cases are adduced, showing the average life of three classes to be as follows :■— Gentlemen. Tradesmen. Working Population. Town....................... 42 28 21 Country, • . . 50 44 35 1 Dr. Farre in Evidence before a Committee of House of Commons (1832), p. 114 * Letter to Mr. Grainger, Woolwich Lectures on the Sabbath, p. 53. PHYSICAL RELATIONS. 1 7 5 That a proportion of mortality so sad for the working classes is owing to a variety of causes, is not to be denied. Poverty, impure air, want of cleanliness, and vicious indulgence, contribute each its share of injury. But when we consider that unduly protracted labour operates with a twofold force, fostering these very evils as well as« directly dilapidating the strength of its victims, we may well regard it as a principal cause of their physical deterioration. “ My own opinion,” writes Dr. Carpenter, “ has long been very decided, that ten hours a day is the fullest amount that ought to be assigned to continued bodily labour, and where there is much mental tension, I should say that even this is too much.” Mr. Grainger, who publishes this opinion, and affirms it to be concurred in by the highest medical and scientific authorities in this country, and confirmed by his own official inquiries in the manufacturing districts, adds, “ If that limit be exceeded, the penalty must be paid in unnecessary sickness, in premature decay of the system, or, as constantly happens, in premature death.” 1 Let the blame of these results be equitably distributed among those who, to gain their own ends, unwisely sacrifice the interests of their inferiors, and those who, with still more glaring folly, allow themselves, by vice and the neglect of Sabbatic rights, to be reduced to slavery. There is another kind of labour— that of the mind— which more speedily and powerfully than merely animal exertion affects the physical condition, inasmuch probably as it calls into action the entire system by means of the brain, and its ubiquitous nervous energy. The moderate and regular exercise of the mental faculties and feelings is even conditional to the possession of the highest bodily health, while fitful and aimless employment of the mind, or incessant anxious thought on any one subject induces idiocy, or insanity, and death :— “ But ’tis not thought (for still the soul’s employed), ’Tis painful thinking that corrodes our clay.” No class of men enjoy better health, or attain more years, than those of calm studious habits. Persons, on the other hand, who overtask their mental powers, are prematurely sacrificed to their 1 Letter to Mr. Grainger, Woolwich Lectures on the Sabbath, p. 53. 1 7 6 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. ardour or ambition. Few students are ignorant of the relief which some change, say a walk, the call of a friend, or a fresh topic of investigation, yields to the heated brain. Weber was aware of the effect and danger of intense uninterrupted thought, when he explained, “ Would that I were a tailor, for then I should have a Sunday holiday !” By spending his evenings in soothing conversation with a friend after his daily labours on his great work, the Synopsis, Poole showed that he knew both his danger and the remedy.1 Nor was the eminent Dr. Hope, of London, less considerate in dismissing every evening at eight o’clock all interest about his patients, a practice to which he was wont to attribute his long-continued life and health. “ I do not think,” says Dr. Carpenter, “ that more than eight hours a day can be given to purely mental labour.”2 Cleanliness has so close an affinity to morals as to have been classed among the virtues. It has, also, an intimate connexion with health, both as contributing to the purity of the atmosphere which we inhale, and as promoting the circulation of the blood, particularly over that membrane, the skin, which performs so important a part in the complex and delicate economy of life. It was no arbitrary law which required of the Jews frequent ablu­ tions. It was one founded in the necessities of men, particularly in eastern countries, and calculated to have, morally and physically, a salutary influence on its subjects. It were easy to prove that a weekly holiday tends to foster habits of cleanliness. Let it be sufficient to refer to the appearance of church-going people in Scotland or England, as contrasted with the following state of things in France after its first Revolution : “ The moroseness occasioned by the want of a Sabbath in France, has an effect on the cleanliness of young men engaged in manual labour; they pursue their daily drudgery in their dirty working dresses, and habit renders them at length averse to a change of linen and clothes.” 3 A cheerful mind is held by physiologists and medical men to be one of the causes of health. For want of this all means fail j 1 Rose’s Biograph. Diet. Article “ Poole.” 2 Woolwich Lectures, p. 53. * Jorgenson in liis Travels through France, quoted Edinburgh Review, voL xxviiL p . 882. PHYSICAL RELATIONS. 177 but by its aid the full benefit of exercise, air, food, and medicine is secured. One of the most striking illustrations of the influ­ ence exerted by the state of the mind Abridgment, vob ii. p. 56. 4 Ibid. voL ii. p. 49. 6 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 11. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPERITY. 2 2 5 that time distinguished in a very high degree by the cheerfulness of their manners, their hospitality, and a courtesy, the more estim­ able that it was indicative of real benevolence.” 1 Were it neces­ sary, the connexion between a strictly observed Sabbath, and every appearance of true peace and joy, might be traced down to the present day, in the lives and deaths of such men as Henry, Hervey, John Newton, Bickersteth, with many others, who all proved, by the alacrity with which they performed the duties of religion, and by their whole deportment, that they experienced wisdom’s “ ways to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths to be peace.” Let us present the following beautiful tributes of two eminent men to the character of Wilberforce. “ I never,” says Sir James Mackintosh, “ saw any one who touched life at. so many points ; and this is the more remarkable in a man who is supposed to live absolutely in the contemplation of a future state. When he was in the House of Commons, he seemed to have the freshest mind of any of those there. There was all the charm of youth about him, and he is quite as remarkable in this bright evening of his day, as when I saw him in his glory many years ago.” « I never,” says Southey, “ saw any other man who seemed to enjoy such a per­ petual serenity and sunshine of spirit. In conversing with him you' feel assured that there is no guile in him ; that if ever there was a good man and a happy man on • earth, he was one.” “ There is,” the same individual remarks, “ such a constant hilarity in every look and motion, such a sweetness in all his tones, such a benignity in all his" thoughts, words, and actions, that you can feel nothing but love and admiration for a creature of so happy and blessed a nature.”2 The strictest views and practice in regard to the Sabbath are thus found to be compatible with pleasure, and so commonly associated with it as to warrant us in regarding them as cause and effect. This conclusion derives confirmation from the biographies of many ardent friends of the institution, which exhibit them as persons, not only of happy temperament, at all times, but especially so on the first day of the week. Venn, author of The Complete 1 History of the Rise and Progress of the U. S. of N. America, vol. i. pp. 504, 505. , 8 Life of Jay, 2d edition, p. 321. p 2 2 6 a d v a n ta g es op th e sa bb a th. Duty of Man, says, “ My Sabbaths are sweet to my soul.”1 Hey of Leeds informs us that in early life his Sabbaths were his hap­ piest days, and that in later life he conceived that this day should be begun, carried on, and concluded with holy cheerfulness.1 2 Philip Henry would sometimes at the close of the Sabbath-day duties remark, “ Well, if this be not the way to heaven, I do not know what is.”3 That day must have been “ a delight ” to Wil- berforce. “ 0 blessed day,” he says, “ which allows us a precious interval wherein to pause, to come out from the thickets of worldly concerns, and to give ourselves up to heaven and spiritual objects. And, oh ! what language can do justice to the emotions of grati­ tude which ought to fill my heart, when I consider how few of my fellows know and feel its value and proper uses. Oh, the infinite goodness and mercy of my God and Saviour!”4 Of Henry Martyn it is said, that “ the Sabbath, that sacred portion of time set apart for holy purposes in paradise itself, was so em­ ployed by him as to prove frequently a paradise to his soul on earth, and as certainly prepared him for an endless state of spiritual enjoyment hereafter.” 5 Another thus writes, “ Every day was a day of tranquil satisfaction, in which we had little to wish and much to enjoy : but the Sabbath presented us with peculiar consolations. We saluted eveiy return of that holy day with undissembled joy, cheerfully laying aside all our usual studies and employments, except such as had a manifest tendency, either to enlarge our acquaintance with, or to advance our preparation for, the kingdom of God.” After quoting from Gilpin’s Monument of Parental Affection the beautiful passage, of which Hie preceding words are a part, a writer asks, “ Where shall we find in scenes of worldly mirth or amusement anything that can furnish such a rational and exalted source of enjoyment, and which will so well bear the retrospect, as in this"?”6 Certainly not among those of the upper classes to whose round of gaieties the day of rest brings hardly any inter­ 1 Life of Venn, 4th edition, p. 46S. 2 Life, 2d edition, vol. i. p. 153, and vol. ii. p. 64. Life, by his Son, ch. viii. 4 Life, vol. iii. pp. 96, 97. 5 Memoir (1828), p. 479. * Dr. Innes (Tract for the Tines, p. 9), himself an example of cheerful piety-through­ out a long life. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPERITY. 2 2 7 ruption, for ennui is their own common and appropriate name for their feelings; nor among those of the middle and lower ranks, who work every day, or spend the first day of the week in amuse­ ment ; for their languid appearance, their abbreviated lives, their sullenness, irritability, and frequent resort to stimulants, tell a very different tale. There have been many such confessors as Colonel Gardiner, Gibbon, and Lord Byron. Colonel Gardiner said that when he appeared to his boon companions to be the most joyous of men, he was in reality so miserable as to wish he were the dog under the table. Byron, we presume, “ held,” as was his wont, “ the mirror up to nature,” when he wrote these words in Childe H arold:— “ It is that weariness which springs From all I meet, or hear, or see: To me no pleasure Beauty brings; Thine eyes have scarce a charm for me. “ It is that settled, ceaseless gloom The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore ; That will not look beyond the tomb, But cannot hope for rest before.” And Gibbon, after referring to the “ autumnal ” as by some deemed the happiest season of a literary life, has this sad reflection ' “ ^ roust reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbrevia­ tion of time and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.” (Life, 1837, p. 117.) How different the Christian ! Religion proves its superiority to nature and philosophy by painting its bright bow in the clouds of adveisity in the noon-tide of his day, and by fulfilling to him at its close the words, “ at evening time it is light.” I “ I may not tread M ith them those pathways—to the feverish bed Of sickness bound; yet, 0 my God! I bless Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled My chastened heart, and all its throbbings stilled To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness.” 1 1 SaKbath S on n et, Mrs. Hemans’ Works (1839), vol. vii. p, 288. 2 2 8 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH CHAPTEK Y. DOMESTIC BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. “ A peculiar blessing may be expected upon those families where there is due caio taken that the Sabbath be strictly and devoutly observed.”—J o nathan E dw ards. The diversities in the domestic life of various countries and times have generally tinned on the place assigned to woman. Her equality to man in all that is most important and enduring entitles her to his companionship, and while her feebler frame calls for his protection, her gentler and more patient spirit qualifies her for rendering to him the sympathy and help which he requires. “ When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!” But although thus fitted to be his associate and friend and be­ longing to a sex nearly as numerous as his own, it is but rarely that she has obtained her just rights, and that the world has fully availed itself of her salutary influence. It is only in the Bible that her claims are clearly and authoritatively ascertained ; it is only as the Bible is known and believed that these claims are practically recognised, and that Milton’s glowing lines are seen to be a picture of life : “ Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source / Of human offspring; sole propriety In paradise of all things common else By thee, adulterous Lust was driven from men Among the bestial herds to range: by thee Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure, Eelations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother, first were known. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 2 9 Far be it, that I should write thee sin, or blame, Or think thee unbefitting holiest place, Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets.” 1 In countries, accordingly, where justice and kindness rule the relation of the sexes, we discover, in beautiful combination, pure religion and morals, high intelligence and civilisation, general wealth, and a large amount of happiness. Wherever, on the other hand, that relation has been superseded by prevalent poly­ gamy, or other substitutes, and wherever influences have exten­ sively operated tending to relax and sever what ought to be a secure and life-long tie, the laws of nature, reason* and justice have been violated, woman has been degraded, and man in all his interests, physical, intellectual, moral, and social, has necessarily sunk along with her. The family, that sanctuary of infancy, that earliest and best school of piety, wisdom, and virtue, that retreat of toiled and weary man, that dearest asylum to the sorrowful, the sick, and the dying, has been dissolved, or never known. There is wanting the “ humble hearth-stone, which is the corner-stone of the temple, and the foundation-stone of the city.” Whatever, therefore, serves to form or to uphold the true family institution must be an unspeakable boon to the world. To this object the Sabbath conduces, and is even indispensable, as will appear, we conceive, from the following statements of facts and principles:— 1. We shall look in vain for a true and happy home iu those places where no weekly holy day exists, or where its advantages cannot be enjoyed. In the lands of Paganism, the relation of the sexes has been debased by polygamy in some instances, by the facility and frequency of divorce in others, and by the depression of woman in all. What the domestic circumstances of the Greeks and Romans latterly were may be conceived from the fact, that in Athens and Rome “ impurity was considered neither as an offence nor as a dishonour.” China is honourably distinguished • by the filial reverence and attachments of its people, to which may possibly be ©wing the “ long life ” and comparative “ prosperity ” of the empire ; but deplorable must be the state of families in a country where the wife is the victim of the husband’s caprice and tyranny, where concubinage is permitted, and where the father has 1 Paradise Lost, Book iv. 11 2 3 0 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. power over the life of his child. The history of slave colonies, and the condition of many servants amongst ourselves, show that the Sabbath may have a place in the laws and calendar of a nation, and yet to certain classes bring no pause of toil, and yield no benefit. In slave colonies, the demand of every-day labour, the neglect to legalize marriage, and the most unrestrained licentious­ ness, have gone hand in hand,1 while among certain classes of servants, as the cabmen of London, who labour on all days for sixteen or eighteen hours, it is found that not a few live with the lowest class of females in an unmarried state, and that their abodes are ordinarily scenes of wretchedness and destitution.2 To the wellbeing of the family, therefore, some Sabbath appears to be indispensable. 2. Nor is domestic life virtuous or comfortable where the weekly day of rest stands connected with a false or an impure re- 'Hgion. The people of Guinea dedicate one day in the week to the honour of their idols. But what avails for their domestic Advantage a day which is associated with demon-worship, with human sacrifices, and with the belief that women are slaves, who must compensate by their labour for the price of their purchase 1 .The Mohammedans and the Mormons, in common, keep a Sabbath, follow impostors, add to the Bible a so-called new revelation from heaven, debase woman, and practise polygamy. The fruits, in both cases, are, accordingly, licentious manners and social degra­ dation, the former class being sunk in “ apparently irremediable barbarism,” and the latter obviously ripening for destruction. Popery has freely imitated Paganism, but it has surpassed its prototype in this, with other particulars, that, corrupting the wife and dishonouring the husband, it has humbled both. Let French writers say how it is with the family in France. One relates that “ six hundred and twenty thousand girls are educated by nuns, under the direction of the priests, and that these girls will soon be women and mothers, who, as far as they are able, will deliver their sons and daughters into the bands of the priests,” adding, “ Young man, you must ask of the priest the hand of the maiden before applying to her parents. . . . Poor m an! you will have i Negro Slavery, C. Observer (1826), p. 679. a Baylee, p. si, and Tenth London City Mission Report, p. 18. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 3 1 a wife minus her heart and soul; and you will learn by experience that he who gave her to you on such terms, knows well how to resume his sway over her.” 1 Another remarks, “ In France we are obliged to use a periphrase, as if we were strangers to the thing : the home of England and the chez-soi of France.” 2 It is not long sincTsome of the leading men~In*~that country, alarmed at the effects of the prevalent profanation of the Lord’s day among the people, united in an attempt to stay the plague. One of them, Baron Augustin Cauchy, a member of the French Institute, wrote on the occasion in these strong terms : “ Wherever a nation fails to keep this commandment [respecting the Sabbath], Chris tianity ceases to exist. There would then be an end to domestic life, to family ties ; and civilisation would soon be succeeded by barbarism.”3 In Spain, there is no holy Sabbath. The first day of the week is the great day for the theatre, and particularly for the bull-fight, which is patronized by royalty, the nobility, and the priesthood, i “ The Sabbath comes, a day of blessed rest; What hallows it upon this Christian shore ? Lo! it is sacred to a solemn feast: Hark ! heard you not the forest monarch’s roar?” The poet proceeds to describe the scene, where “ Yells the mad crowd o’er entrails freshly tom, Nor shrinks the female eye, nor ev’n affects to mourn.” And adds: “ Such the ungentle sport that oft invites The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain. Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights In vengeance, gloating on another’s pain. What private feuds the troubled village stain!” 4 In harmony with such amusements, such a Sunday, and such a priesthood, is the disorganized state of the family and of general society in Spain, where every man must wear a weapon ; where the most petty journey requires the preparation of a warlike en- l Priests, Women, and Families (1846), pp. 61, 62. a R oussel, Catholic and Protestant Nations, vol. ii. p. 80. 8 L e tte r, in My Connexion with the Sabbath Movement in France, by C. Cochrane. < Childe Harold, cant. i. st. 68-80. 2 3 2 ADVANTAGES OP THE SABBATH. terprise ;a and where V every town has its Casa de JExpositos, that of Seville alone (seven-tenths or seven-ninths of whose inhabitants are entire strangers to religious ordinances) having nearly 1100 poor infants thrown upon its care every year, to which must be added that the mortality of that class is tremendous, and the real amount of infanticide, owing to the general licentiousness of the people, is incalculable.”2 But we must revert for a moment to France, which at one time exchanged Popery for Atheism, the Sabbath for the Decade. The experiment showed that infidelity was, even more than a corrupt religion, detrimental to the family. What the institution suffered from the worship of a strumpet let the following facts declare —The National Convention enacted a law permitting divorce, of which there were registered, within about a year and a half, 20,000 cases ; and within three months, 562 cases, or one to every three marriages, in Paris alone. Well might the Abbd Gregoire exclaim, “ This law will soon rain the nation.” But this was not all. “ Infancy was committed to the tender mercies of State nurseries, in which nine out of ten died ; a system which, by infanticide and disease, had, in fifty years, reduced by one half the population of the Sandwich Islands, and were it to be universal and permanent, would, in a few centuries, nearly depopulate the earth.”3 The worship of the Goddess of Reason, who had been able to bestow nothing of that endowment on her votaries, was abolished, and the law of divorce was modified and then repealed ; but Popery, which is still, as we have seen, laying waste the family of France, was not able when restored to coun° teract the mischief produced by infidelity, for writers in the earlier part of this century said of the country : “ A chilling egotism has dried up all the springs of sentiment. The domestic affections are extinct. No one any longer enters into those valuable and wise connexions by which the present generation is united to the generations which are to come.” “ Domestic crimes, parri­ cides, the murder of husbands by their wives, and wives by their husbands, are almost as common as larcenies were wont to be.” 4 ’ Irving’s Alhambra (1832), vol. i. p. 7. s Rule’s Mission to Gibraltar and Spain, pp. 237-239. * Beecher’s Perils of Atheism, p. 86. * Dr. Esqnirol and Mennais, in Boyle Lectures for 1821, by Harness, vol. ii. pp. 110, 111. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 3 3 3. The family deteriorates under a neglected or profaned Chris­ tian Sabbath, “ The Reformed faith,” it has been remarked by a Roman Catholic writer, “ is particularly favourable to family affection.” 1 We accept the confession, which is not only honour-; / able to the writer, but just. We shall find, however, in the countries of the Reformation too many examples of Sabbath dese­ cration, and of slackened or even sundered family ties, because all Protestants are not sincere or consistent holders of their professed creed. Manifold influences-r-pride and fashion, avarice and the love of pleasure, by their exaction of untimely or interminable labour from tradesmen and.servants; intemperance, by its neglect, brutal treatment, and beggaring of families ; and licentiousness, by its “ vile ” adulteries, heartless seductions, and base patronage of “ the Social Evil ”— unceasingly operate to the overthrow of a holy Sabbath, and to the ruin of domestic sanctities, enjoyments, and hopes. But “ what are the high places of Judah 1 are they not Jerusalem i” “ The seventh day this; the jubilee of man. London ! right well thou know’st the day of prayer.” In Lord Byron’s time “ the day of prayer ” was known by many “ a spruce citizen,” “ washed artisan,” and “ smug apprentice,” only as a day of play— a day on which they might “ gulp their ' weekly air,” and indulge themselves “ with draught and dance till morn.” Since the noble poet’s time, the evil has gone on and increased. A million of Londoners have abandoned church­ going. An unprecedented number pour themselves by railways into the country. Amusements are provided for loiterers at home. And efforts have been made to have the Crystal Palace and other public resorts thrown open on the Lord’s day, and thus to introduce a wholesale desecration of sacred time. The evil spreads from the capital over England, Scotland, and Ireland. That five millions of people in the United Kingdom abjure the claims of the Sabbath and the sanctuary is, in other words, to say that one million of families are without the benefits, physical, in­ tellectual, moral, religious, and economical, which these institu­ tions convey. Let those who know England better than we, speak 1 Viel-Castel. in Roussel, vol. ii. p. 81. ’ * * 2 3 4 a d v a n t a g e s of t h e s a b b a t h . to its consequent domestic condition. As for Scotland, we know that its home virtues and comforts have, in not a few instances, degenerated. The excessive competition in all kinds of trade has been injurious to personal and social religion, and the wages earned have gone into “ a bag with holes.” When families are formed in our cities and towns, it is too frequently forgotten to erect an altar— the protection, blessing, and glory of a house. Even in rural scenes, it is not so common as formerly “ f o hear th e so n g O f k in d r e d praise arise from hum ble roofs.” Our agricultural servants are in many instances detached from the families of their masters, and yet precluded the means of forming their own domestic circles— whence rudeness, wickedness, and crime. Intemperance has committed many ravages on house­ hold piety; peace, and order, and this, like other evils, from the very want of that Sabbatic strictness to which it has been so un­ truly and preposterously imputed. In short, objects of gain, education, and even benevolence, have occasioned removals of children from the care of parents, or parents from the society of their children, to the weakening of the foundations of the family and the church. 4. And yet it is certain that the family flourishes wherever the Christian Sabbath is rightly observed, and nowhere more than in Great Britain and America, which, with all their faults, are proverbially superior to other nations as Sabbath-keeping, com­ munities. There, ancient custom, law, and, what is better, the deep convictions and feelings of the majority of the people, are arrayed on the side of the institution. It is to these countries, accordingly, that several intelligent writers, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant, assign the palm for domestic virtue and happiness. “ Nowhere,” says Madame de Stael, “ can be seen such faithful protection on one side, and such tender and pious devotedness on the other, as in married life in England. Nowhere do the wives share with so much courage and simplicity the troubles and dangers of their husbands, wherever the duties of their profession may call them.” Baron D’Haussez observes, “ All things considered, ceteiis panbus, thanks to the influence DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 3 5 of the manners, the married state in England is happier than in any other country.” In equally laudatory terms do M. de Tocqueville and M. Michel Chevalier write of the marriage tie and conjugal happiness as they exist in America.1 Of Scotland, Dr. Currie remarks, “ A striking particular in the character of the Scottish peasantry is one which it is hoped will not be lost— the strength of their domestic attachments. The privations to which many parents submit for the good of their children, and particularly to obtain for them instruction, has already been noticed. If their children live and prosper, they have their cer­ tain reward, not merely as witnessing, but as sharing in their prosperity. Even in the humblest ranks of the peasantry, the earnings of the children may generally be considered as at the disposal of their parents; perhaps in no country is so large a portion of the wages of labour applied to the support and comfort of those whose days of labour are past. A similar strength of attachment extends through all the domestic relations.”2 That France owes its low domestic state not to its soil, not to the mental or physical character of its people, but to its want of a holy Sabbath and a pure Christianity, might be largely shown from facts in the history of its Protestant Church. Let one case suffice, in reading which the Christian will recognise the leading features of his religion, and the Scottish Christian, in particular, might conceive that the scene is laid in his own land, instead of Africa. “ Towards the end of the seventeenth century, there were about three thousand French refugees established at twelve leagues to the north of the Cape, in a fertile valley, which bears, to the present day, the name of French Valley. . . . There is a fourth village, the most considerable of all, that of La Perle, whose inhabitants, exclusively devoted to agriculture, are the richest in that Old Dutch Colony, now belonging to the English. This population has not forgotten the rigid principles and fervid piety of their ancestors. The traveller who crosses their hospitable threshold invariably finds upon the table one of those great folio Bibles which the French Protestants were wont to hand down from father to son, as a sacred patrimony and inestimable trea- i See, for all these testimonies, Roussel, as before, vol. L pp. 57, 58; vol. it [. 80. a Life of Burns, Prefatory Remarks. 2 3 6 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. sure. The date of birth and the names of all the members of the family are invariably inscribed in it. Sometimes, too, one finds pious books in their-houses, such as the Psalms put into verse by Clement Marot. An affecting custom has been pre­ served amongst these simple and austere men. Night and morn­ ing the members of each family assemble for prayer. There are no formalities or pompous ceremonies; they content themselves with praying with all their hearts, and with reading the Bible. Every Sunday, at sunrise, the farmers set out in their rustic vehicles, covered with hides or with coarse cloth, to attend Divine service, and at night they return peaceably to their homes. Gambling is unknown amongst them, and the refined corruption of European civilisation has not reached them. The useful arts and practical instruction are all they care for and cultivate. They seek to diffuse them among their former slaves, whom they have always treated with kindness, and they willingly devote much time and pains to the propagation of the gospel amongst the idolatrous races that surround them.” 1 5. When Sabbath observance is begun or resumed by any family or people, the sure and speedy consequence is an improve­ ment in their domestic character and condition. The proof of this averment may be found in every report of Protestant missions, home and foreign. We give two or three of the more recent examples. The Report of the London City Mission presents the following among the statistics of the good effected by the Society during the year 1859-1860 : “ Shops closed on the Lofd’s day, 293 ; persons who have become communicants, 1236- backsliders restored to church communion, 253 ; drunkards reclaimed, 1102; fallen females rescued, 524 ; unmarried couples induced to marry, 300 ; family prayer commenced, 587.”2 A mission was begun in Aneiteum, one of the islands of the New Hebrides, in 1848. Formerly bigamy, polygamy, and repudiation of wives prevailed there. Female infanticide was frequent. Widows were strangled, and cast into the sea along with their husbands. In 1860, the Sabbath is as well observed as in any part of Scotland. Family worship is universally observed every morning and evening; in each of fifty or sixty districts, into which the island has been 1 Roussel, vol. ii. pp. 205, 206. 1 News of Vie Churches, vol. yi. p. 162. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 3 7 divided, there is a teacher, with his wife, and Christianity has in twelve years saved the lives of upwards of 100 females, widows, and infants. “ I have married,” says Mr. Iuglis, one of the mis­ sionaries, “ about 160 couples during the last six or seven years, and, with very few exceptions, they are enjoying as much domestic happiness as could reasonably be looked for.” 1 Scarcely less interesting is the change that has passed over another island in Polynesia, which, from the excessive ferocity of its inhabitants, was by Captain Cook named Savage Island. The people retained the same character for sixty»years after his time, but consented eleven years ago to receive missionaries, and now all of them, being 4300, are Christian, with the exception of some ten, who still stand aloof. In the days of heathenism there had been a fearful destruction of children, but now the natives, in whose cot­ tages the voice of prayer and praise is daily heard, are “ a loving and grateful people.” 2 We may add, that the respect for the Lord’s day which began to be entertained by the slaves in Jamaica and other colonies was connected with the observance j>f the law of marriage, and with a greatly improved morality in all respects. 6. Families in contiguous countries, districts, or villages, are strikingly distinguished from one another in respect of morals and comfort according to their treatment of the Sabbath. Such con­ trasts are frequently to be met with in town and country, at home and abroad. In Belgium, for example, “ the population, fond, like the French, of pleasure, may be seen at the theatres, gar­ dens, and all places of public resort,” w^iile in Holland, where, “ it is said, no person wishing to retain a decent character in.society, can absent himself on Sundays from the place of worship to which he belongs,” “ the chief pleasure is found at home, and the family circle furnishes the truest happiness.” 3 A writer, describing two villages in the south of England, inhabited by fishermen, supplies anothei striking contrast. “ Although but a mile and a half apart from eacn other, there is a great difference between the character and habits of the people of Mousehole and those of Newlyn. There is much more recklessness in the latter than in the former. The 1 Reformed Presbyterian Magazine for September I860. a Evangelical Magazine for August 1860. 8 Thom on the Sabbath (1830), p. 273. Roussel, voL 1. p. 280. 11*. 2 3 8 ADVANTAGES OP THE SABBATH. men'of Newlyn do not drink on board, but they drink a good deal on shore. A tipsy man is scarcely ever seen in Mousehole. This great reform is the work of the last few years. There were for­ merly five public-houses in the village, and now, although it has a population of about 1500, it does not afford sufficient custom to support even one. The habits of the people are in all respects superior to those of Newlyn. No fisherman from Mousehole will take to the sea on a Sunday. Every one of them attends some place of worship or other on that day. They are generally Method- t ists. They are also well educated according to their circumstances. The village school is a very efficient one. As indicative of their energy, I may here mention that the fishermen of Mousehole have, at a cost of .£1400, built for themselves a pier, which, with the breakwater built many years ago by the Government, forms their little harbour. To construct it, they raised £1200 on their own joint bond, which they are paying off by instalments, each boat being put under a yearly contribution for the purpose.” 1 A third illustration, embracing eleven families, and extending over three generations, is even more important and conclusive than that of the two villages. In New Hampshire there are two neighbourhoods— one of six families, and the other five. The advantages of the two were nearly equal, except that the five families were about three miles farther from church, and had to pass one of those mountain ridges so common in that vicinity, called “ Governor’s Hill.” The six families were fond of social intercourse, and used to spend their Sabbaths in visiting from house to house— never visiting the sanctuary. Some of them totally disregarded the Sabbath, and all eventually formed the habit. In the course of years, five were broken up by the sepa­ ration of husband and wife, and the other by the father becoming a thief, and fleeing to parts unknown. Eight or nine of the parents became drunkards, most of whom have found a drunkard’s grave. One committed suicide, and nearly all have suffered for want of the comforts of life. Of some forty or forty-five descend­ ants, about twenty are known to be notorious drunkards, jockeys, or gamblers. Four or five are or have been in the State’s prison. One fell in a duel. Some entered the army, and have never been l Labour and the Poor, Morning Chronicle, Nov. 21,1849. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 239 heard from; others have gone to sea and never returned; and only a small number remain within the knowledge of their friends. Some are in the alms-house. Only one of the whole is known to have become a Christian, he having been “ plucked as a brand from the burning” after having pursued a vicious miserable course from his youth ; and he is the only one who has a competency of property, or the confidence of his neighbours. But how has it fared with the other five families, by whom, it is stated, no work was done nor visits made on the Sabbath, but who were all sure to be seen, riding or walking, on the way to the House of God ; not without occasional taunts from their Sabbath-breaking neigh­ bours 1 They all lived in peace, and were prospered in their labours. A large number of their children were reared up around them, numbering now, with their descendants, from two to three hundred. Eight of ten of the children are members of the Church, and adorn their profession. In only one instance has there been committed by any of the descendants a crime, which was followed by a speedy and deep repentance ; and but one is known to be intemperate. Some of them are ministers of the Gospel. • One is a missionary to China. Numbers are supporters and officers of churches. There has been among them no separation of husband and wife, except by death, and no suffering for wTant of the neces­ saries of life. The heads of these families lived to a good old age, and with a score or more of their descendants have gone down to the grave in peace, most of whom have left evidence that they died in the Lord. The homestead of a number of the families is now in the hands of the third generation. A colony has been planted by the descendants on the prairies of the West, main­ taining the institutions of their fathers, and now reaping the benefits of their Sabbath-keeping habits and principles. These facts, say the narrators, speak a language not to be mistaken, and they come to you from the hand of the descendants of the five families.1 < ^ 7. Thus it is invariably found, that where the Sabbatic institu­ tion is in force, the domestic institution flourishes; and that where the former is in abeyance, the latter is disorganized. The con­ nexion of the one with the other, therefore, cannot be arbitrary. 1 Puritan Recorder, quoted in Christian Treasury for 1850, p. 549. 2 4 0 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. There must be something in the Christian Sabbath that is neces­ sary to the family. The influence, indeed, is reciprocal. It has been said that “ none but married parent's build churches, support ministers, or frequent the worship of God.” 1 The head of the house is appointed in the Decalogue a custodier, teacher, and propagator of the Sabbath law. On the other hand, the Sabbath, or rather the pure religion, of which a day of sacred rest is an essential part, gives existence, stability, and prosperity to the family. The mighty agency operates by promoting all the interests — physical, mental, moral, and economical— of the person by whom the weekly holy day is respected, so that if each inhabitant of a house were to rest and worship in a Christian manner on that day, the various beneficial tendencies of the practice would concur to secure for him a large amount of good, and “ the resultant” of the improved character and circumstances of the individual members would be the general welfare of the household. The same agency operates, also, by means of the instructions and laws which require a Sabbath for their promulgation and study, and by which persons are taught that marriage is a Divine ordinance ; that it is the voluntary union of one man and one woman only, a union which nothing but the death or infidelity of one or other of the parties can lawfully dissolve ; that husband and wife are bound to love each other, the former giving honour to the latter as being an heir with him of the grace of life ; that parents and children, masters and servants, have their respective rights and obligations ; and that, while multiplied evils must be awarded to all who trample on or neglect, many blessings are pledged to all who perform, their relative duties— truths, lessons, and sanctions, that no one can credit without recognising the importance of every human being, and abhorring both tyranny and insubordination in the family and everywhere else. And Christianity by its Sabbath favourably influences domestic life in yet another way. On that day the members of a household who are in many cases necessarily separated on other days, can, and do meet together, when mutual acquaint­ ance, affection, and sympathy are cultivated ; children and domestics are instructed ; and family ties are strengthened, hallowed, and blessed by family prayer. Who that has participated in the pious, 1 Dwiglt’s Theology, Ser. 119. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 2 4 1 rational, benevolent engagements and tranquil enjoyments of such a society, can, without doing violence to the strongest convictions, prefer the portion here and hereafter of the votaries and victims of delusive “ pleasure,” to “ Finding in the calm of truth-tried love, Joys that her stormy raptures never knew?” Thus it is that many acquire the views of married life, with the domestic habits which prevail in this, and some other countries, where, according to the confession of foreigners, are realized the highest idea and the best blessings of home. If, therefore, “ My dear, my native soil” would not allow those scenes to depart, from which “ Old Scotia’s grandeur springs, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad if England would retain and brighten her “ Domestic happiness, the only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the Fall if Britain and America would not forfeit but increase their great­ ness ; if France would “ let the fire-side regain its influence,” so that her “ tottering edifice of religion and politics might acquire both tone and power;” if, in fine, the earth would shake from her the abominations of polygamy, concubinage, adultery, causeless divorce, and “ the social evil,” with all their present horrors, and then preparation of myriads for everlasting degradation and woe, there must be a sacred remembrance in the church, the world,1 the house, the heart, of that indispensable auxiliary and safeguard of liberty and law, of the Bible and the school, of the sanctuary and the hearth— the Sabbath-day. m ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH CHAPTER VI. a d v a n t a g e s o f t h e s a b b a t h to n a t i o n s . “ I have lived long enough to know what at one time I did not believe—that no society can he upheld in happiness and honour, without the sentiments ot religion.” —Words 0/ Laplace, not long before Ms death, to Professor Sedgwick. “ The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine authority.”—Adam Smith.1 « W e a l t h ,” says a popular writer on Political Economy, “ is but one among a number of causes which conduce to the happi­ ness of a people. Social happiness is the result of a pure religion, good morals, a wise government, and a general diffusion of know­ ledge.” 2 Let us consider these and other elements which enter into national prosperity, with the view of ascertaining how much they are dependent for their existence and power on the Sabbatic institution. The welfare of a country is in no small degree promoted by its wealth, provided this be not limited to a few, but, while possessed in a larger share by some, be diffused in a competent measure among all classes. It is in such circumstances that nations are more industri­ ous, and have more leisure as well as inclination for the improving and refining pursuits of science, literature, and general knowledge. These circumstances remove society farther away from the evils of disorganization and barbarism. The augmented capital and the higher standard of enjoyment connected with such a state of 1 « php -baronet’s next undertaking was a quarto essay against what he then con­ sidered a too strict and puritanical observance of the Sabbath in Scotland, but with singular conscientiousness he destroyed the whole manuscript on hearing this remark from his friend, Dr. Adam Smith, which was the more memorable as coming from the apologist of David Hume: ‘ Your book, Sir John, is very ably composed; but the Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claim* to D.ivine authority.’ Memoir of Sir John Sinclair, by Chambers, s Conversations on Polit. Econ., sixth edit, p- 24. TO NATIONS. 2 4 3 things supply increased stimulus to trade, and multiply the pro­ ducts of industry. And while a general plenty is a blessing, the affluence of individuals is a fund which can be drawn upon for large and expensive undertakings, and for any emergencies that may arise from unpropitious seasons or from prevailing disease. Tt has been remarked, that the kingdom of Judah was in all respects in its best state when its commerce was most extended, and its wealth most plentiful. A prevailing poverty, on the other hand, is in various ways injurious to society. It is one cause of the crime that destroys confidence, and entails a vast expense on a nation. It directly absorbs much of the capital of a country to the oppression of the industrious, and the prevention of many useful applications of money. It in many cases induces, invites, and localizes disease, whereby terror and death are spread all round. Of thousands thus made widows and orphans every year, the greater portion become burdens to the country, while the loss in productive labour by sickness and funerals, is im­ mense. Add to this the destruction of property to which many in these circumstances are impelled, who are not under the con­ trol of intelligence and moral principle. And the evil ends not writh one generation, but goes down to a sickly and degenerate posterity. The riches, which prevent so much injury, and secure so much good to a nation, are the fruits, in abundant amount, of its pro­ ductive labour. The persons who labour and economize, are benefactors of their country,— the idle and the wasteful dimin­ ish its wealth. It has been shown in a previous chapter, that incessant toil is detrimental to the commercial interests of a com­ munity in the diminished amount and depreciated quality of its material and mental products, as the consequence of its demoral­ izing tendency, and the physical exhaustion of the workmen; while, on the other hand, every kind of labour becomes, by the interposed rest of the Lord’s day, more valuable, and therefore more remunerative. Connected with that day’s rest, there are, we have seen, some remarkable provisions for benefiting both the labourers and the State. And it has appeared, that in point of fact the wealth of nations graduates according to the measure in which the day is religiously respected and observed. Akin to the element of wealth is another— a spirit of im­ provement and useful enterprise. Of this spirit, although on a small scale, a happy illustration has been supplied by the Morning Chronicle Commissioner, in the case of the Sabbath-respecting and energetic fishermen of one of the contiguous villages, mentioned in the preceding chapter. The same cause produces the same effect, and as in that village, so everywhere it will be found that the Sabbath well kept promotes a desire for social improvement. And it produces the effect in two ways, directly on its friends, and indirectly on their neighbours who are cold or hostile to its claims. So powerful is the institution that it operates benefi­ cially, not only on its own adherents, but through them on indi­ viduals and communities that to a great extent disregard its authority. Many of our principal inventions, discoveries, and arrangements, our steam-engines, our railways, and telegraphs, our schools of art, our • agricultural, manufacturing, and postal im­ provements, take their rise in Britain or America, those lands of the Sabbath ; and other lands follow in their wake. France, in­ deed, sends over her contributions to our civilisation; but they abound in the frivolous and the effeminate, and when substantial, are much helped by foreign impulse. Italy excels in the fine arts, and we are sufficiently willing to learn of her in that depart ment, but we cannot forget that Rome, the seat of a government which ought, from the. assumed infallibility of its head and church, to be the most enlightened and advanced on the face of the earth, is nevertheless found, as to all that is of the greatest importance to a country, lagging ingloriously behind. It will drain no marshes. It will introduce no subsoil plough into its Campagna di Roma. *It abjures winnowing machines and iron bridges. It would form no railways, and strongly resisted the proposals of foreigners to introduce improved light into its dismal streets, and only the other day yielded to the pressure of universal opinion and example in these matters of obvious utility. Every at­ tempted improvement, indeed, originated with English skill and capital. And “ so effectually has the Pontifical Government de­ veloped its influence, as to have all but annihilated trade in the Papal States.” In the other states, if wre except Lombardy, matters are not much better, and even that fertile, well-watered 2 4 4 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH portion of Italy is far behind in the march of improvement. We have seen that considerably more than a half of the inhabitants of Naples are without any fixed employment, yet the Neapolitan territory, which miserably maintains a population of between seven and eight millions, is capable of yielding abundant food for at least twenty millions of people, or three times the present amount. As with Italy, so in many respects it is with all other countries which are burdened with an exacting superstition, that yields no compensating return, and are encumbered with a multitude of holidays,1 wdthout feeling the refreshing and animating influence of a weekly day of repose and religious instruction. These coun­ tries, however much they profit by the indirect influence of the institution coming upon them from other lands, and stimulating them by means of commerce to the exertions by which their natural capabilities are turned to some account, are yet low in the scale of material prosperity, for want of the direct impulse of the institution in exciting a spirit of improvement among the people. While the manufactures of Portugal are inconsiderable, its agriculture is the worst in Europe. How lamentable is the state of Spain, where the great body of the people are abandoned to idleness and vice,— where, with a climate and soil admitting in some spots of three or four crops in the year, not above a fourth part of the surface of the country is applied to any useful purpose, and where, With excellent facilities for commerce, the exports are less than those of some of our leading commercial towns.2 “ The Protestants of the United States,” as Macaulay remarks, “ have left far behind them the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil; the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole continent round them is in a fer­ ment with Protestant activity and enterprise.” It is so much easier for human nature to do evil than good that it is not wonderful that the Protestants on the Continent 1 It has been estimated that the sum lost to Spain every holy-day or feast-day by the suspension of labour is £166,666, 13s. 4d., making an annual loss of marly seven mil­ lions.—Bed's Geography, vol. ii. 272, note. 2 Christian Treasury (1846), p. 3T9. The writer informs us that 400,000 quarters of grain, on an average, need to be imported every year to prevent multitudes from perish­ ing by famine. to n a t io n s. - 2 4 5 2 4 6 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH of Europe should, under the influence of Rome and of infidelity, have departed from the strict observance of the Sabbath which was for a long period maintained both in the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches. But when we bear in mind that this deviation, while at no time universal, has never proceeded to the same desecration of the institution as has prevailed among Roman­ ists, and that those churches have always enjoyed in connexion with the Lord’s day the means of Christian instruction, together with freedom from the burden of numerous holidays, we are prepared for the state of things which actually exists, a measure of enterprise inferior to that of British and American Protestants, and yet beyond that of their Roman Catholic neighbours. In Switzerland what an improvement in every respect strikes the eye as you pass from Valais to Vaud, or from Lucerne to Zurich ! And how spiritless appears the town of Lucerne with its alternate shops of bijouterie and cigars, compared with the bustling Zurich, so like our Birmingham or Belfast, or with thriving Geneva, although all the three have the common advan­ tage of being situated near noble rivers and lakes ! “ The Can­ tons of Zurich, Basle, Geneva, Neuchatel, Glarus, and Outer Appenzell, which are all Protestant, are distinguished above the rest by their industry. One circumstance is remarkable, namely, that almost all the manufacturing industry of Switzerland is found in the Protestant part of it, while the Catholics possess little or none. Very often, as in Appenzell, the line of demarca­ tion is quite sharply drawn. Manufactures and Protestantism cease at once, and give way to the herdsman and the shepherd ; and that, not because there is any sudden change in the natural features of the country, for the little Canton of Glarus, for in­ stance, is a high mountain land, and yet it abounds in industrial activity. But the people of Glarus are Protestants ; they have fewer fast-days and holidays ; and Protestantism awakens the powers of the mind, abates the influence of the priesthood, and teaches men to rely on their own exertions.” 1 The writer observes that the same remark applies to Germany, where “ of two villages close together, the Protestant community will be clean, industrious, and prosperous, while their Catholic neighbours 1 Mugge’s Switzerland, in 1847, voL i. pp. 2C2, 203. TO NATIONS. 247 will remain always poor and dirty.” i “ Crossing St. Maurice’s Bridge, our passports are inspected, and so we are free to enter Switzerland again from Savoy : the religion, Protestantism, seems at once to make all things cleaner, happier, and more prosperous ; never wras a change more remarkable. English-looking breadth of tillage, vines and maize, and walnut groves and pleasant villages have succeeded to all their opposites and absences ; and so these go on improvingly all through the Canton de Vaud.” 2 Turning from the Continent to our own country, we see Ireland, possessed of every advantage in soil, climate, minerals, rivers, and harbours, for agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and yet surpassed considerably in the amount of national revenue, and in its shipping, by somewhat smaller, and far less populous Scotland, while her people, though remarkable for their shrewdness and vivacity, are in the mass characterized by ignorance, sloth, filth, a general state of mind bordering on the savage, and a social condition continually approximating to destitution and famine. But you require not to go out of Ireland to be convinced that the blame rests* on its prevalent religion, for passing from the south or west into the north, • “ you cannot but feel that Ulster is at least fifty years ahead of its sister provinces in all the true elements of national progress; and ..in its general aspect so much more resembles Britain than Ireland, that one could almost fancy some physical convulsion to have severed it from the one island, and attached it to the other.” 3 This is the language of an Irishman, who also states that “ in 1846, the Tidal Harbour Commissioners pro­ nounced Belfast the first town in Ireland for enterprise and com­ mercial prosperity. The revenue of its port increased during 1786-1850, from £1500 to £29,000.” Of the comparative progress of the principal* ports in Ireland we may judge from the following figures :— i Mugge’s Switzerland, vol. i. p. 203. a Diary, by Paterfamilias (1856), p. 220. « DiU’s Ireland's Miseries, pp. 30,38. 1797. 1842. Belfast, . - . . , Tons 13,062 136,747 Londonderry, . . „ 2,856 33,299 Cork............................................ " 13,424 87,925 Dublin, • . „ 33,485 61,257 2 4 8 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH There is, however, a higher species of activity than any that respects only our own material comforts. There is the enterprise that aims at the general good of society, and particularly its mental and moral improvement. It is necessary only to say here that no system has accomplished much good in this department, except in so far as it has reflected the light and radiated the heat which by means of the Sabbatic institution it has received from Revelation. The reason of all this spirit-stirring effect of the Christian weekly festival is no mystery. Its observance withstands the depressing influence of toil. It is a protection against the plea­ sures which dissipate mental energy, and enfeeble moral purpose. It introduces men into the encouraging and animating fellow­ ship of their fellow-creatures. And above all, it places them, consciously, under the Divine eye, which stirs into a correspond­ ingly pure and benevolent activity every feeling and faculty of their being. No country can in the highest sense prosper without such a government as, by good laws faithfully administered, and con­ sistently exemplified by its rulers, discourages on the one hand injustice and oppression, and restrains on the other the encroach­ ments of a lawless liberty. And it would be impossible to name an expedient better adapted to prevent the extremes of despotism and weakness in a government than the Sabbatic institution. The Sabbath is a constant memorial and safeguard to the rulers and tlie rich to keep them from forgetting their duty and responsibility. It is a perpetual bulwark for all the sons and daughters of toil against the undue exaction of labour, and against encroachment on their property of a seventh part of their time. And effectual as it is for producing popular intelligence *md virtue, there must spring up in the country that respects it those lawgivers and ma­ gistrates who will consult the rights and the welfare of high and low, rich and poor, and who, strong in their own character, as well as in the support of a sound public opinion, will be able to repress the risings of turbulence and disorder. How strikingly does history confirm these views! In the days of Solomon, when the Jewish religion, including its Sabbaths, was in- full operation, Judah and Israel enjoyed abundant comforts and great TO NATIONS. 2 4 9 prosperity, and the account of this state of things is followed by the significant words, “ And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.” “ And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.”1 To the Sabbath did England in no small degree owe a government so puissant and beneficial as that of Cromwell, the happy domestic influence of which is admitted by Bishop Burnet, while its foreign aspect is eulogized by a no less unbiassed judge, Sir Walter Scott, who says, “ Perhaps no government was ever more respected abroad.” 2 To the Sabbath, as a principal cause, was Britain indebted for such a reign as that of William m., Prince of Orange, and for the superiority of our present constitution to the governments of Russia, France, and Italy, where the people are in chains, which the expansive spirit of a nation imbued with the influence of Christian truth and in­ stitutions, if we could suppose it thus fettered, would calmly break in pieces. The policy of those rulers, who amuse their subjects with frivolous objects on the Lord’s day, that they may not by serious thought be led to discover that they are men and deeply injured men, may be cunning and successful for a time, but it is not wise, since its purpose is as short-sighted as it is unjust. The convulsions on the Continent in 1848 furnished impressive illustrations of this truth. It is a fact that these convulsions were more destructive in Roman Catholic kingdoms, where there was nothing entitled to the name of a Sabbath, than in Protestant communities, where the institution, inasmuch as it brought along with it the opportunities of a more rational worship and of better instruction, had not suffered so much deterioration. No Protestant prince lost his throne. And it is especially worthy of grateful remepibrance that Britain, where, above almost all coun­ tries the Lord’s day receives its meed, though far from its due meed of honour, stood firm and unscathed in all its interests amidst the shakings of the nations of Europe. “ I see,” says the Chevalier Bunsen, personating Hippolytus, “ that you have erected most won­ derful factories and cotton mills ; but you do not make the poor 1 1 Kings iv. 20-34. 2 Tales of o Grandfather, 8vo. (1848), p. 211. • 2 5 0 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH people, men, women, and children, work in them on Sundays, as the Gauls [the French] do in their country. . . . You have known how to unite freedom with order, popular rights with a national aristocracy and hereditary monarchy, which union, our great heathen prophet Cicero said, would, if ever it could be brought to pass, form the most perfect of governments.” 1 The prevailing tranquillity which is maintained by a wise and just government is of the greatest moment to all the enjoyments and interests of a country. Spain, Italy, and Ireland, might be pointed to as presenting obvious contrasts to such a state of things, and reference too might be made to those occasional scenes of outrage and bloodshed in countries usually peaceful, which enhance to the inhabitants their prevailing advantages. In Scotland, 1800 soldiers suffice to keep the peace, while Ireland required, for the eight years preceding 1852, troops numbering at an average more than 25,000. Of these troops, scarcely 3000 are found in Ulster, and except in its southern counties, even these are wholly unnecessary. Not a soldier is stationed between Belfast and Derry, a distance of seventy miles, embracing two most populous counties, and various large towns. Of the 13,000 police in Ireland, the number stationed in Ulster in 1851 was 1901, little more than a seventh of the force for a third of the popula­ tion.1 2 * What says M. de Montalembert, in name of a Commission reporting to the French Parliament in 1850 on Sabbath Obser­ vance 1 After remarking that the Almighty conferred success and security on human labour in proportion as nations respect the Lord’s day, he refers in proof to England and the United States, and says, “ Witness that city London, the capital and focus of the commerce of the world,2 where Sunday is observed with the most scrupulous care, and where two and a half millions of peo pie are kept in order by three battalions of infantry, and some troops of guards, while Paris requires the presence of 50,000 men.” 4 The connexion thus observed to subsist between a Christian 1 B u n sen ’s Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i i p p . 1 6 ,1 7 .' 2 T hom ’s Statistics, q u o te d in Dill, pp. 74, 8?. s “ O th o u , re so rt a n d m a rt of all th e earth .' — Co w per. *Jtapport, etc. (1850), p p . 37, 38. TO NATIONS. 2 5 1 institution and social order is not a matter of accident. From the whole preceding discussion in these pages, it follows that a Sabbath-keeping community will be healthy, intelligent, moral, and comfortable to the extent in which the influences of the institution are permitted to operate. Those who enjoy such blessings can have no interest in turmoil, or in mere change, and only the direst necessity would make them revolutionists, when all their feelings are in favour of peace and quiet. These men, too, can appreciate and make allowance for the difficulties of rulers, and their attempts at reformation will be rational and discreet. The meetings once a week of rich and poor prevent selfish insulation, remove igno­ rant prejudices, smooth asperities, cherish kindliness of feeling, create a mutual interest, teach lessons of civility, and promote refinement of taste and courtesy in manners. , “ The keeping one day in seven holy,” says Blackstone, “ as a time of relaxation and refreshment, as well as for public worship, is of admirable service to a State, considered merely as a civil institution. It humanizes, by the help of conversation and society, the manners of the lower classes, which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity and savage selfishness of spirit. It enables the industrious work­ man to pursue his occupation in the ensuing week with health and cheerfulness ; it. imprints on the minds of the people that sense of their duty to God, so necessary to make them good citizens j but which yet would be worn out and defaced by an unremitted con­ tinuance of labour without any stated times of recalling them to the worship of their Maker.” 1 He might have extended his remarks to other classes of society. There are those besides the lower orders who can be selfish and disorderly, noted for family broils, and for their breaches of the public peace, but a truthful biography of such characters would let us see that those who do such things neither relish the business, nor experience the tran­ quillizing pleasures of a sacred resting day. The saying of Burke, that “ whatever alienates man from God, must needs disunite man from man,” holds good of all classes. Let us again borrow a few sentences from Bunsen’s Hippolytus. After remarking, as already quoted, that our manufacturing people are not, like the Gauls [the French], condemned to Sunday labour, he thus proceeds : “ You 4 Blaekstone’s Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 63 252 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO NATIONS. 253 vaded all ranks. It is acknowledged by the most zealous royalists* that in that singular camp no oath was heard, no drunkenness or gambling was seen, and that during the long dominion of the soldiery, the property of the peaceable citizen and the honour of women were held sacred.” 1 Thus “ the people that do know their God are strong and do exploits.” It was ever so in the history of the Jews, down to the time of the Maccabees. When they forgot their religion and its Sabbaths they became weak and dastardly, and were finally reduced to a condition of abject dependence and servitude. In France as compared with Britain, in Spain as compared with Holland, in South as compared with North America, we find proofs that the people whose character, mental, moral, and corporeal, has been deteriorated by ignor­ ance, superstition, and the pursuits of frivolity and pleasure, are surpassed in energy and prowess by the men who have, through the Scriptures and the institutions of Christianity, imbibed the spirit of faith and courage, and had their intellectual and physical powers trained to activity and endurance. And who are those that at the close of a war return to their homes and ordinary avocations, without having been corrupted by the life of a camp or the excitements of the battle-field, and blend again in general society without the slightest disturbance of its order and peace i The men who, like Cromwell’s warriors, have learned by the lessons of the Sabbath that war is not a matter of desire or taste but a painful necessity, and that “ the post of honour is a private station. The historian proceeds to record the following remark able facts connected with the disbandment of the army whose virtue and bravery in the campaign he had eulogized. “ Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown on the world; and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that the discharged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or v ould be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result followed. In a few months, there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed * Macaula>'’s Htoory of England, vol. i. p. 122. How different from the foUowing: No woman’s honour is safe in any village through which a French detachment hap­ pens to be passing." Letters from Turin.—Do% Express, June 22 1859 12 have, like them, labourers and mechanics, aspiring to better their condition ; but yours prefer working, and quietly associating together, to the making of revolutions, and plunging others and themselves into misery. You have ragged q|iildren ; but you clothe and educate them for useful work, instead of enlisting them as soldiers to kill their fellow-citizens ; and they like learning to read and to work, rather than making an attempt to convulse society by their votes, aud to subvert order by arms. You have just shown to the world the practical effect of the prin­ ciple on which your social arrangements are based. People on the Continent believed (or tried to make others believe) that the gathering of so many hundreds of thousands of your working and labouring men around the spectacle of the Great Exhibition would be the signal, if not of famine and pestilence, certainly of revolution and bloodshed. But I have seen them surround their Queen with respectful affection : and far from any disturbance taking place, good-will and good-humour and plenty never have reigned more paramount anywhere than during these months among you. Now when I ask myself, since what time you have possessed this liberty and enjoyed this peace and tranquillity, I cannot help remarking that you owe it all to that godly reform you began to make of Christianity about three hundred years ago.” 1 The occasion, however— although ever to be deprecated— may call for the defence of a land against domestic or foreign foes. And who are the men best prepared in such a crisis to stand by their sanctuaries and hearths 1 The very persons who have by means of the Sabbath been disciplined not less to energy, enter­ prise, self-reliance, and physical strength, than to all the finer and gentler feelings of humanity. Macaulay describes Cromwell’s army as one that never found, either in the British Islands or on the Continent, an enemy who could stand its onset— as startling and delighting Turenne by its fearless energy ; and mentions a brigade, outnumbered by foes and abandoned by allies, which nevertheless drove before it in headlong rout the finest infantry of Spain. He lets us into the secret of all this power, when he says, “ But that which chiefly distinguished the army of Cromwell from other armies was the austere morality, and the fear of God which per- 1 Bunsen's H ippolylus, voL ii. pp. 16-18. 254 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH ^nto the mass of the community. The royalists themselves con­ fessed that in every department of honest industry, the discarded warriors prospered beyond other men, that none was charged with any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask an alms, and that if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner attracted notice by his diligence or sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver’s old soldiers.” 1 • When a society is characterized in its successive generations by a growing measure of health and longevity, it is generally re­ garded as in an improving condition. And what sound-minded person can doubt that the cultivation of the virtues of respect for life, industry, temperance, and providence, together with the im­ proved physical comforts which such a condition implies, not to mention the pleasures of health itself, must presuppose as well as contribute to national wealth, energy, and happiness 1 When we compare the present state of our own country with that of de­ graded and short-lived savage tribes, with that of half-civilized China, where so many of the young are left to perish, or even with that of Europe, in those times when fell diseases created so much alarm and calamity, we have an impressive illustration of the blessings included in the increasing duration of human life. But England teaches us the same lesson in another way, for while “ the value of life is greater there than in any country in the world,” 2 with all other elements of greatness and prosperity in proportion, she presents over-against these honours the spectacle of life in its lowest form of discomfort and abbreviation. We see a large class destroyed for'lack of knowledge of the simplest sani­ tary rules, of the plainest principles of political economy, and especially of those intellectual and moral subjects which, above all other means, dignify, bless, and prolong the life of man. We see a vast number the victims of crimes, which not only in many in­ stances entail capital punishment, but as connected with imprison­ ment and other sufferings,, are equivalent to 30 years’ tear and wear of life, the criminal of 35 years being 65 years old in con- ■ stitution, and by imprisonment itself increase exactly fourfold the chances of death.3 And we see tens of thousands ruined by vice, 1 Macaulay’s History o f E ngland, vol. i, p. 154. _ * Dr. S. Smith’s Philosophy o f Health, vol. i. (1351), p. 147. 3 Ihid. p. 108. TO NATIONS. 255 avarice, vanity, ambition, luxury, indolence, intemperance, and other abettors of the claims of the grave. “ The death-rate in Great Britain,” said Mr. Chadwick, at the recent Social Science Congress in Glasgow, “ may be stated in round numbers alto­ gether at half-a-million annually. On an analysis of the causes of death with a knowledge of the present state of sanitary science, it is declared by others than myself that one-half may be pre­ vented, and that, too, not by rudimentary, but by tried and well- ascertained means.” Who can compute the moral, physical, and social evils involved in so many deaths with their foregoing suf­ ferings,— the guilt of so many human sacrifices to human passions, — the lamentation, mourning, and woe of the sufferers and sur­ vivors,— the destitution to which so many widows and orphans are reduced, and the irreparable injury to society from lost labour, superadded burdens, increased disease, and multiplied crimes ? Science teaches us that many of such evils are preventible, and that, though there are bounds to life which cannot be passed, human beings might be so circumstanced, and might so act as to fill up happily the measure of their days. In confirmation of this position, if points to the higher average life attained by some nations and classes than by others, and to cases of countries, dis­ tricts, and towns, where comparative health is enjoyed by all orders of the population. It is .deeply to be regretted, however, that writers on sanitary reform, not fully applying the Baconian principle of gathering truth from a sufficient induction of particu­ lars, have failed in so many instances to discover the root of the prevailing evil to be impiety, and to learn that all appliances which are not guided by this fact are mere palliatives, not remedies. To one sanitary expedient this objection does not apply, for if there be any expression which the amplest evidence has proved to indicate more comprehensively than another the instrumen­ tality by which -so much waste of life is to be prevented, and the benefits of general and prolonged health are to be secured, it is to be found in the words, “ Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.” For that evidence we refer to the preceding pages, and to a few statements now to be submitted, with the view of show­ ing that the condition of large classes of men, in respect of health, 256 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH bodily vigour, and longevity, according as they have laboured or rested on the Sabbath, is actually such as from the physical adap­ tations, and salutary effects in particular instances of the institu­ tion, might have been anticipated. The countries of Europe where the duration of life varies most widely are England and Italy, and it will be admitted that no two countries differ more in their treatment of the day of sacred rest. While, as already remarked, the value of life is in no part of the world higher than in England, “ the proportion of deaths to the whole number of inhabitants is greater in Italy than in any country of Europe.” 1 It does not affect our conclusion, that this excessive mortality is owing in good part to undrained marshes and swamps. Let the refusal of Rome to accept the offer of Englishmen to remove the causes of fatal malaria set aside the apology, and show, moreover, what a change of religious institu­ tions would do for the health of Italy. The intermediate rates of mortality in Russia, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, and Holland, and France, are not at variance with the results which their religious observances would lead us to expect. According to a census pre­ sented to Parliament, the proportion of sickness in the different provinces of Ireland was as follows : Ulster, 1 in 47-36 ; Lein­ ster, 1 in 22-63 ; Connaught, 1 in 20-19 ; and Munster, 1 in 11-78. The lowest average life, in short, is to be found among savage men, criminals, prisoners, and slaves, who either have no knowledge of a holy Sabbath, or recklessly disregard it, while “ the best lives ” are to be found in Great Britain, and there among the “ multitude that go to tl^e house of God, that keep holy day.” It has been said, that among the humbler provident classes who enrol themselves members of friendly societies in this country, there is experienced a prolonged duration of life above all others.2 Not to mention how much the existence of a Sab­ bath in a land, and its observance by many, influence all classes to some extent, and contribute to the formation of such societies, we believe it will be found that the members who generally com­ pose them are at the same time members of Christian churches. And it is indeed one of the glories of Christianity and its Sabbath, 1 System, of Universal Geography founded on the works of Malte Brun and Balbi, p. 562. * Burton’s Polit. and Soc. Earn. (1S49), pp. 76, 77. TO NATIONS. 257 that a class of men are thereby elevated from circumstances which depress and cut short the earthly existence of their fellows, to a degree of comfort and a measure of life equal to those of their wealthier brethren, and proper to their rank as men. In the same way would health and length of days become, much more than they are at present, the inheritance of society at large. Most certainly, if ignorance were generally enlightened, if crime and vice were everywhere suppressed, if labour were in all cases regulated by a due regard to human strength, and if people had comfortable dwellings, sufficient food, pure air, and cleanly persons, that happiness of individuals and nations arising from a pleasurable and protracted life would be realized which is thus with exquisite beauty described— “ There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days ; for the child shall die an hundred years old. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” Let us mark the closing wmrds of the magnificent account— “ And it shall come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” 1 On the importance of a prevailing morality to the welfare -of a State it would be superfluous to enlarge. Let falsehood be genera], and all confidence would be subverted. Abounding idleness would be abounding penury. If crime were unrestrained, where would be the security for property, the inducements to in­ dustry, economy, and improvement, or the opportunity for culti­ vating science and literature h A community corrupted by luxury and vice is always regarded as ready to become the prey of some powerful neighbour, or to waste away under poverty and disease. The greatest empires and many petty kingdoms have perished, the victims of their own wickedness. But for the check of a public morality, society generally would in due time reach the crisis of those tribes which have cast themselves out of the pale of civilisation and law ; might become right, industry discarded, the land uncultivated, vrar and plunder the chief occupations, tamine, pestilence, and death following in the train of sloth, igno- 1 Isaiah lxv. 20-22 ; Ixvi. 23. 258 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH ranee, and rapacity, and the scene enacted in many places which was witnessed in a Polynesian island, where the three or four survivors of an exterminating war contended who should be king. But where is the security for a morality, which, not merely arrest­ ing decay, will impel society onward in a course of continual improvement 1 Let us learn from the dissolute manners of the Babylonians; from “ the private debauchery and public profli­ gacy in which the Greeks and Romans were steeped ; ” from the impure and cruel rites of idolatry ; from the powerlessness of Islamism to preserve its adherents from vice, and its countries from degradation; from the incapacity of a corrupt Christianity, as in Spain, Italy, and Ireland, to stay the plague of moral evil, and to throw off the gangrene of political decline ; and from the inroads of infidelity and immorality on continental and British Protestantism,— let us learn from all these facts that there is no sure provision for a conservative and elevating national virtue in science, literature, the arts, or in any religion that is without a weekly day devoted exclusively to rest and to the occupations and pleasures of a rational earnest piety. That the Sabbath as thus observed is the security for the morals and consequent preserva­ tion and advancement of nations, appears not only from the failure of all other expedients to secure these results, but from the uni­ form success in attaining them, which has distinguished the insti­ tution. The authorities in France, civil and ecclesiastical, began a few years ago to perceive that something better than a conti­ nental Sabbath is required, as was evinced in the efforts of M. de Montalembert, and of the Archbishop of Paris, to expose and cor­ rect its enormities. It would be well that foreigners who are desirous of promoting the observance of the Lord’s day, would ponder the peculiarities w'hich have imparted to the practice in this country a salutary influence such as they have not failed to observe and acknowledge, and that those Englishmen, too, who sigh for a continental license in this matter, would weigh the same subject in connexion with the failure of holidays in neigh­ bouring countries to secure the morality of the people, and the prosperity and stability of States. Let both classes reflect on what constitutes the power of an institution which has done so much to make Britain a great country, and which is the means TO NATIONS. 259 of raising up every year thousands from among those whom their own Sabbath-breaking and that of others have sunk in the lowest moral and social degradation, to the dignified position of virtue, usefulness, and comfort. Let them remember that there must be some admirable contrivance and energy in an instrument which has without an exception been employed in producing those re­ markable changes of character, from a slothfulness hardly admit­ ting of the moderate exertion necessary for cooking food to dili­ gence in cultivating the soil, building comfortable dwellings, and engaging in commerce ; from a total recklessness of life to feelings of mercy towards man and beast • from the desire of plunder to respect for property; from lawless libertinism to conjugal affec­ tion and fidelity,— which have crowned missionary efforts in heathen lands, and been among the glories of our age. If they considered these things, and drew the necessary inference that what has accomplished such results among all classes of men must be capable of accomplishing them universally, they could not but feel the obligation imposed upon them to cease from the suicidal, unpatriotic, unphilanthropic policy of ridiculing and opposing the sacred Sabbath, and to unite with its friends in N maintaining its sanctity and extending its blessings. Another element in social prosperity and happiness— one on which political economists place much reliance, and which has existed, as well as been beneficial in its operation, precisely in pro­ portion to the observance of the Christian Sabbath— is a generally diffused intelligence. Knowledge is the parent and nurse of those arts which abridge human labour, multiply our comforts, and em­ bellish and refine society. There are two great evils to which it is in no small degree an antidote. It is well ascertained that' disease prevails and destroys in many cases where intelligence on the part of its victims would have arrested its progress, or even prevented its attack; that for want of the due exercise of the mental faculties whole tribes of human beings physically degene­ rate, and that from ignorance many others prematurely perish. Let men be properly instructed ; and aware of the causes of injury to health, they will avoid them as they now eschew poison. For poverty, also, a principal remedy is to be found in the gene­ ral information of the people. Impart instruction to an indivi­ 2 6 0 ADVANTAGES Of THE SABBATH dual, and he acquires a self-respect which will make him unwill­ ing to depend on the bounty of others, and he will therefore strive against sinking into penury. Intelligence will suggest to him reasons for providence and plans of economy. It will induce a readiness to discern the symptoms of a decaying trade, or of a threatened scarcity of employment, with a promptitude in turning to some other means of support, and the ability to meet the de­ mands for a superior kind of work. Agricultural labourers in some parts of this country have, it is alleged, been prevented from going in quest of employment by “ profound ignorance of every­ thing connected with the countries whither they would be sent.” 1 “ The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.” It is the peculiarity of work of every kind, as a writer observes, that a small addition to the expertness makes a large addition to the remuneration, and that the higher the grade the more marked is this difference. The superior education of the Scotsman, accordingly, gives him an ad­ vantage wherever he goes. His “ knowledge is power ” to adapt himself to circumstances, and to do .what others cannot do ; power, therefore, to raise himself above want, and to get on in the world. And what is thus for the benefit of the individual is for the com­ mon good. We find employers attesting that “ educated work­ men turn out the greatest quantity of the best work in the best manner;” that “ the educated and cultivated-workpeople of all ages are decidedly the best; more valuable as mechanics, because more regular in their habits, and more to be relied on in their work and that “ their best servants are those who have been taught in their youth.” The importance of intelligence on the part of those servants on railways, and in other situations, to whom in our day so great and dangerous powers are intrusted, it is im­ possible adequately to estimate. 1 This has been said of labourers in the south of England. The following furnishes both a contrast and a c o u n t e r p a r t I am old enough to remember the Highland tenantry of Scotland driven in multitudes from a soil to which their race had for ages been attached, nearly in a state of serfage, to make room, as is the case in Hungary, for sheep; and I had afterwards the happy opportunity of seeing the poor High­ landers attaining the means of independent living amidst the wilds of America ; but the wretched serfs of Hungary have neither the intelligence nor the means to find so blessed an asylum . "—Austria a n d tie Austrians, rol. i. p. 19. TO NATIONS. 2 6 1 There remains to he noticed one more requisite to social pro­ sperity— a pure religion. The conviction that the public recogni­ tion of a Supreme Being is indispensable to the good of society has been all but universal. The exceptions are like the monstrosi­ ties in nature, which do not disprove the existence of pervading general laws. When a Berkeley affirms the impossibility of mat­ ter, and a Hume fancies himself to be constituted, as described in four lines suggested for inscription on his monument— i 11 W ith in th is circu la r id ea , Called vulgarly a tomb, The impressions and ideas rest, That constituted Hume ” •—1 such paradoxes are regarded as no more affecting the common rule of faith in the existence of matter and.mind than any hum does the ordinary course of nature. So the rare and unnatural ap­ pearance of a man who discards all religion proves nothing against it, if it does not strengthen, as exceptions do a rule, the evidence in its favour. The extravagance of opinion occasionally uttered on such a subject may be fitly compared to the aberrations of the person who conceives himself made of glass, or of the beggar who imagines himself a king, with this difference, that the views of the sceptic admit not of the apology of mental hallucination, but have originated, as the recantations of infidelity have afterwards proved, in some criminal passion. Mankind from Numa Pom- pilius downwnrds have been convinced that society cannot go on without religion. Even Robert Owen, who said so much against it, and did so little without it, was constrained at last to call in the aid of a supernatural element. This general consent is itself a strong proof of the importance of religion to social prosperity, but it is impressively confirmed by the miserable situation, verging on dissolution, of all those com­ munities in wdiich the religious element has through neglect or violence been almost or altogether extinguished. It has been supposed that some savage tribes have no notion of a God, as they have no name for him in their language. Among the Esquimaux and the aborigines of New Holland, the impression of 1 Lines by Mr. George Barclay. Christ. Mag. (1818), p. 311. 12* 262 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH a Supreme Being was too feeble to inspire any religious worship. There was a class of the Tambookies, an African tribe, who dis­ regarded. what their parents said of Tixo, the Creator and Preserver of all things, considering them old and ignorant people, and said to the Moravian missionaries, “ As we left off believing in God, you came to-instruct us and to tell us more than our fathers and ancestors knew.” All these may be said to belong to the very lowest class of human beings, and prove that man’s descent as a religious being, and his prostration as a rational and social creature, are in melancholy coincidence and proportion. Nor will civilisation protect against decline or anarchy the nations that have been smitten with a prevailing infidelity. Witness Greece before its loss of liberty, Borne at the wane of the republic, Italy amidst the corruption of its Church and State, and France before its first revolution.1 The most remarkable of these is France, which is perhaps the only country that infidelity ever conquered to its views, and which amidst the reflected light of sixty centuries, and the blaze of civilisation, ventured on the tremendous experi­ ment of proclaiming independence of Heaven ; at one fell swoop abrogating the Sabbath, abolishing worship, and abjuring the faith of immortality and of a God ! The results are well known — the disruption of all social bonds, the opening of the flood­ gates of immorality and crime, and an incalculable amount of misery, all tending to the sure and speedy ruin of the nation. Meanwhile the very mimicry of religion in their decades, in their goddess and temples of reason, in their orations and hymns in honour of their deities, was a tribute to the necessity of rest, instruction, and worship of some sort— the counterfeit confessing the felt need of the real— the new expedients, so grotesque and pitiful, while they betrayed man’s helplessness without all religion, showing how shallow and idiotic his schemes are to contrive and provide a substitute. And the testimony in favour of religion received its full triumph, when the forced return of a proud people to their ancient faith, such as it was, attested that the civilized no less than the barbarous require a God, a religion, and a Sabbath, and when by the earliness of the return it was demonstrated that the reins of government could not even for a brief space i Douglas’s Truths of Religion, p. 12. TO NATIONS. 263 be intrusted to the hands of Atheism without involving general ruin, any more than Phaeton could for a day attempt to guide the steeds and chariot of the sun without setting the world on fire. Although, however, infidelity has been tried and found wanting, it does not follow that every system claiming the name of religion should be adapted for much good to society. It is a pure religion which statesmen and political economists affirm to be important to social prosperity. We must judge of systems by their fruits. It is hardly necessary to say that the religions of savage nations will not stand this test. The New Zealanders had the idea of a Great Spirit, who thundered, brought the wind, and was the cause of any unforeseen loss of property or life, but they were neverthe­ less cannibals, and as far advanced in 1642 as they were a cen­ tury later. The Polynesian nations without an exception enter­ tained the belief of a Supreme Being, and yet their notions of the Deity were too gross and absurd to prevent exterminating wars and wasting licentiousness. Such are all savage tribes, except those who have sunk to the still lower depth of utter depression, which some have mistaken for simplicity and innocence. When we turn to nations of a superior grade, we shall find that none but those that have embraced Christianity have ever reached a complete civilisation. The religions of Egypt, Greece, and Borne, the most perfect ancient faith, failed to banish the most cruel customs, to humanize the upper classes, or to enlighten and elevate the great body of the people. And the creeds of Confucius, Mohammed, Brahma, and Boodh, have for ages down to the present day held multitudes of the human ralbe in abject bondage, general poverty, and deep depravity. The difference, in short, of Europe and North America from the other regions of the earth, is the exponent of the superiority of the Christian to every other faith. But the name Christian itself has been claimed by a variety of sects, entertaining opinions very dissimilar, and requiring us to apply the test by which we discriminate Christian from non- Christian systems,— their practical results. The chief of these parties are the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant churches. There must be some superior vitality common to the creed of 2 6 4 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH those Churches, to account for the superior social condition of their members to that of the whole world besides, but there must also be more life in Protestantism than in the other systems, in the ratio of its more salutary influence On the countries where it prevails. Roman Catholics themselves will admit, with one of their own journalists, that “ unquestionably since 1789, the balance of power between Catholic and non-Catholic civilisation has been reversed.” The evidence of history, much of which has heen already presented, would support a more unqualified con­ fession. But it is sufficient to add that, while Protestant mis­ sions have raised men of every clime from the lowest condition to all the decencies, and to many of the comforts of civilized life, Rome has signally failed here, and for the reason assigned in the following words,—«, reason no less applicable to its comparative inefficiency at home : “ The Church of Rome represses independ­ ent judgment and action, keeps its heathen neophytes submissive and in fetters, keeps them as it finds them, children. In Para­ guay, in India, in every place where they have planted the cross, this has been a result, and never in a heathen country have we seen any national progress, social or religious, grow out of the propagation of the faith.”1 But amidst the various creeds of nominal Protestants— some of them “ wide as the poles asunder”— we have to inquire for the'specific faith which most favourably influences the state of society. That Unitarianism is not entitled to this honour might be presumed from the closeness of its approximation to infidelity, and actually appears from its tried incapacity to propagate and maintain itself. We are saved the necessity of leading a proof of the former assertion by the admission of the great champion of the system, Dr. Priestley, who, in writing to Mr. Theophilus Lindsey respecting President Jefferson, said : “ He is generally reported to be an unbeliever, but if so, you know he cannot be far from us.” 2 The other assertion is established by the history of Unitarianism. Let the following facts speak for the rest. In Massachusetts, the stronghold of the system in America, while the Puritans were successfully employed in forming a Christian community in the i Quarterly Review, vol. xciv. p. 1S4. 3 Robert Hall’s Works, voL v. p. ISA TO NATIONS. 265 Sandwich Islands, which would on the whole bear advantageous comparison with that of the best regulated societies of the old world,1 their Socinian neighbours were utterly indifferent to the claims of the Pagan world. While, according to Dr. Pierce, one of themselves, their settled ministers had, in the course of the years 1812-1846, decreased from 138 to 124, those of orthodox opinions had in the same period increased from 197 to 417. A writer who quotes these statistics remarks that Unitarianism had made little progress in the other States,— that its professors show little interest in propagating their faith,— and that during the years to which Dr. Pierce refers, evangelical Christianity had given existence to the Home and Foreign Bible and Tract So­ cieties, and had covered the entire West with churches, academies, and schools, while Unitarianism had maintained a kind of dying life almost exclusively within a single State.2 The want* of dif­ fusive and moral power in the creed as held in this country, was fully exposed by Hall and Fuller, till its friends, probably pro­ voked by such strictures, and constrained by surrounding example, were led to make some feeble attempts to extend their views. Altogether it appears that Unitarianism is a parasitic plant- which, having no hold of the soil, has struck its roots into other plants, and thence derives its scanty nourishment and feeble growth. Where would have been its fruits, such as they are, if it had not been for the trees of life and their healthful atmosphere, from which it has received aliment and support 1 Nor is the Protestantism which steers a middle course between the Socinian and Evangelical schemes fitted to make much head against social evils. We refer to the creed intended by Sir James Mackintosh, when he represents those who preached works, or the mere regulation of outward acts, as having comparatively failed to make a favourable impression on public morals.3 This creed has been fully tided in Protestant countries on the Continent as well as in England and Scotland, for both abroad and at home there have been predominant classes wbo have avowed and de­ fended it, notwithstanding that they have subscribed another and a better. And we have only to look to the extensive symbolizing 1 Quarterly Review, vol. xciv. p. 91. 2 Christian Times, Jan. 27, 1854. . il Memoirs, vol. i. p. 411. 266 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO NATIONS. of continental Protestantism with Romanism or with infidelity, and to the utter inefficacy of High Churchism in England, and of Moderatism in Scotland to leaven our people, not to mention foreigners, with Christian principle and character, to be convinced that “ the pure religion” which the best interests of society demand has yet to be named. That “ pure religion” is principally to be found where the doc­ trines of the Reformation are in good faith embraced, as they are by many on the Continent, by the evangelical clergy and people of the established churches of England and Scotland, by far the larger proportion of the dissenters of both countries, and by great numbers in North America, to whom might be added our Protest­ ant missionaries to a man. It is by the men of these views that all our great institutions for the circulation of the Scriptures, for Christianizing the heathen, and for the religious instruction of the neglected of all classes at home, have been originated and are_ sustained. In almost every scheme for promoting the temporal good of society, it is men of these views that take the lead and the labour. And it is persons of this class who, fully maintaining and carrying out the principles, most largely experience the blessings of the Sabbatic rest as these principles and blessings are thus . associated : “ If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a de­ light, the holy of the Lord, honourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”1 i Xu. lviii. 18,14. DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. 2 6 7 CHAPTER VII. a p p l ic a t io n o f p r e c e d in g PRINCIPLES a n d f a c t s in PROOF OF THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. “ If this counsel or work he of man, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.”—Gamaliel. From the principles and facts set forth in the immediately pre­ ceding part of this volume, it appears that a weekly holy day cannot be dispensed with, if health, intelligence, religion, virtue, and happiness be of importance to mankind. There are some, however, who accord to the institution no slight measure of the credit due to it as an instrument of good, without yielding up their minds to the faith of its Divine authority. Such persons, it seems to us, neglect to follow out the light of evidence to its legitimate conclusions, and thus subject themselves to the imputa­ tion of inconsistency. Let us, following that light, attempt to show, that the considerations which evince the excellence and utility of the weekly rest, concur with other things in attesting that it is the contrivance, appointment, and charge of Heaven. “ Paley has deduced an argument, for this world being the work of an intelligent cause, from the relation of sleep to night. He says, ‘ It appears to me to be a relation which was expressly intended. Two points are manifest; first, that the animal frame requires sleep ; secondly, that night brings with it a silence, and a cessation of activity, which allows of sleep being taken without interruption, and without loss.’ . . . But what the rest of sleep is to the body, the repose of the Sabbath is to the soul. An argu­ ment less apparently demonstrative, because more refined and in­ tellectual, might be deduced from the appointment of the Sabbath, that God is the Author of revelation” [and of the Sabbath], “ as well as that He is the Author of nature from the relation of sleep to 2 6 8 DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. ✓ night. The body demands, by the necessity of its nature, a certain period of relaxation from to il; hut the mind, ever active, though not always active to [good] purpose, requires a positive rest, prescribed to it, in order that, by interrupting the ordinary chain of its thoughts, it may profit by a cessation of its usual cares ; and, since it cannot cease to think, may at least have a complete change of thought, at fixed intervals, which is its proper repose. Nor by this cessation or interchange of labour is the work which it is pursuing delayed. The mind reverts with a new energy to the object which for a season it has ceased to pursue. These pauses are common in the development of all organized beings.”1 The Sabbath must have been the suggestion of infinite bene­ volence. Human beings are naturally selfish, but the selfish think only of themselves, and are neither inventive nor ready, neither exuberant nor painstaking, with expedients for relieving the misery or promoting the happiness of others. Many, indeed, of the race have become truly benevolent, but we have no evidence that they acquired the character in any other way than through the religion of the Sabbath. It is only in countries where that religion has existed that benevolent institutions have been known.1 2 It is in the lands, at least, in which the Sabbath flour­ ishes that charity abounds. It is the classes and individuals of these lands who reverence the institution that are pre-eminent for bene­ ficence. The selfishness of man would not originate the benignant arrangement ; the benevolence of man came too late to contrive what already existed. But other considerations decide the matter not only against human, but against all creature claims. The Sabbath embraces in its provisions too large an extent of good for creatures to have imagined, evolves in its course beneficial tendencies which no finite mind could have foreseen, and attains its objects with an unfailing certainty which no dependent being could have commanded— proving itself to have had its source in the deep thoughts and warm feelings of a Divine heart. The adaptations of the institution proclaim it to have been the device of Divine wisdom. The schemes and works of man, after 1 Address by Douglas of Cavers on Slavery, Sabbath Protection, etc., pp. 35-37. 2 China has been lately held to be an exception to the remark., but on grounds which require further elucidation. PROOFS FROM REASON. 2 6 9 the greatest care and labour have been expended on them, exhibit palpable marks of imperfection, but the Sabbath has never needed improvement. Human legislation, regulated as it is by endlessly diversified and continually changing peculiarities of place and time, must frequently be enlarged, modified, or abrogated, but the Sabbath has for ages stood out from week to week a reproach to all earthly ordinances— a glorious monument of unerring legis­ lative skill. While other .regular divisions of time— as day and night, the month and year— were made to man’s hand in nature, there was nothing of this kind, nothing in the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, to guide him to the adoption of the seventh day for any purpose, but, nevertheless, the week, including in not a few instances a sacred day, has prevailed in many parts of the world from a remote antiquity. No people without a Sabbath have -ever of their own impulse introduced it.' After a long-con­ tinued experience of its value in some countries, there are numer­ ous instances in which persons show sometimes by their language, more frequently by their conduct, that they account it a burden and a curse. Notwithstanding all the regard which many have ever entertained for it, its excellence is still far from being fully understood and appreciated even by the wise and good. How much light has but lately been thrown on its importance to the welfare of society ! That a seventh day of sacred rest renders the labour of six days more remunerative than would be that of seven under a system of unremitting toil, and that it interposes a barrier against the enslaving of mankind, are proofs of the pro­ found wisdom of the institution which it was reserved for recent times to bring into clearer view, if not entirely to discover. It is one thing, moreover,-to see and unfold the merits of a discovery, and altogether another thing to make it. To the origination, in short, of an institution, proved to be adapted to the whole con­ stitution and circumstances of mankind, there was indispensable so large a measure of knowledge, as to make it manifest that the claim by the Author of the Sabbath to omniscience itself would be no arrogance, and His exercise of the attribute no difficulty. The sanctity of the Sabbath is a further evidence of its Divine original. The ordinance is too sacred for human beings to desire or even to think of. They could have imagined and wished a DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. 2 7 0 DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. day of rest, but judging from the views and feelings of those who slight or scorn the present Sabbath (and the formation of a differ­ ent character is one of the residts and triumphs of the institution), there is in it, as a day of worship and holy rest, a class of quali­ ties the reverse of those which man esteems and loves. But “ of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.” The Sabbath wa3 evidently made for man, but not by man. Its author must have been divinely holy, as well as divinely benignant, intelligent, and wise. Our position is established also by the justice of an arrangement which shows no respect of persons, prescribing the same duties and securing the same privileges alike to rich and poor, kings and subjects. The preceding proofs respect the Sabbath as a contrivance, to the conception and origination of which, as has been shown, only a Divine being -was competent. But to be of any avail, the institution must be adopted and employed by those for whose benefit it vras designed. That they would never have appropriated the gift in its full extent without an external and controlling in­ fluence exerted on their minds and hearts, is manifest not only from the dislike which men feel to a holy day, but from the igno­ rance and pride by which they are led into the greatest divergences of opinion and practice on all sorts of subjects. The Sabbath must be socially as well as personally received and observed. And what but Divine power could bring so many various individuals, with all their supposed conflict of interests as masters and ser­ vants, employers and employed, sovereigns and subjects, to agree­ ment respecting the propriety, the time, tqid the engagements of such an institution, or what but Divine authority could secure for it an unquestioning submission 1 Without that commanding influence, the discrepancy of sentiment on the matter must have produced a Sabbath of so endless a diversity of season and observ­ ance as to contain the elements of its speedy dissolution, or rather must have prevented the introduction of a Sabbath altogether. The remarkable harmony, however, among men of many ages and countries with respect to the proportion of time, the day, and the duties of a periodical rest— a harmony which has frequently awed PROOFS FROM REASON. 2 7 1 its enemies into respect— points not only to Divine wisdom as contriving the institute, but to Divine power and authority as giving it establishment. Since writing these remarks we are happy to find that we can confirm and adorn the views expressed in them by the eloquent words of Dr. Croly. “ The divine origin of the Sabbath might almost be proved from its opposition to the lower propensities of mankind. In no age of the world, since labour was known, would any master of the serf, the slave, or the cattle, have spontaneously given up a seventh part of their toil. No human legislator would have proposed such a law of property, or, if he had, no nation would have endured it. . . . The Sabbath in its whole character is so strongly opposed to the avarice, the heartlessness, and the irreligion of man, that, except in the days of Moses and Joshua, it has probably never .been observed with due reverence by any nation of the world.”1 In the awe with which, as just remarked, the institution inspires the hearts of its enemies, we discover another testimony to its superhuman ordination and character. The inconsistency is not in our statement, but in the person’s own mind, wdien we say that the same individual may feel a consciousness, and utter a confession of the excellence of an object to which he once had, » and may still have a dislike. Ovid has described no uncommon case : “ I see the good, and I approve it too — Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.” There are many, indeed, who profess a superiority to the fears and convictions which haunt evil-doers, and especially Sabbath- breakers, affecting to regard such feelings as mere superstition, and who in the midst of their pleasures would seem to be at ease as respects responsibility to a superior Power. But certain facts indicate that an inward disquiet lies at the root of their apparent indifference or joy. It has been said, that the disasters which frequently befall the profaners of the Lord’s day, are owing in part to a sense of guilt, wrhich so enervates and confounds them in the hour of danger as to deprive them of their usual power to employ the means of escape. Not unfrequently, too, persons who have lived in the neglect of religious ordinances arid laws change • Divine Origin and Ooligation of the SalVath (1850), p. 17. 2 7 2 DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH. their views and conduct, and then divulge the truth, that under all their seeming gaiety they have been wretched men. But jus­ tice overtakes others in their profligate career, and they become amenable to the outraged laws Of their country. In these circum­ stances, as has often been observed, the confession is very com­ monly made, that their fall and ruin are traceable, in particular, to one great error— that of contemning the sacred day. The acknowledgment is entitled to all credit. It has not been bribed or wrung from them. It has been given spontaneously, and at a time when there is no possible temptation to falsehood. Why those persons uniformly fix on the desecration of the Lord’s day as the primary cause of their undoing can be explained only on 'these two suppositions— that what they utter is true, and that there is a potency of evil in their conduct proceeding from the despite of no ordinary blessing, from the infraction of no human law.- Finally, the preservation of such an institution in such a world as ours affords evidence of an inward vitality, and an external guardianship, that are more than human. That it should have been continued in the decayed state in which we find it in some heathen countries, is a testimony to its original power, and to its deep seat in the wants and consciences of men. But that it should for many centuries have been maintained, as in other cases it has been, in its pristine vigour, is a fact which nothing can explain but its having been planted and cared for by a Divine husbandman. The Sabbath has had to contend with many adverse elements sufficient to have long ago withered any production reared and tended by human hands. There is the desire of change. There is the aversion to holy duties. There is the love of unre­ strained pleasure. There is a grasping avarice. There is the strong passion for worldly eminence and fame. Under the in­ fluence of some one or other of these feelings, many pervert the institution— one class spending the day in amusement and revelry — another, in merchandise— a third, in prosecuting their literary or scientific studies. Many, again, compel those who are under their authority to ply their exhausting labours that they them­ selves may be-enriched, though at the expense of the ruined health and neglected minds and morals of their servants. All this, which PROOFS FROM REASON. 2 7 3 has nearly obliterated a holy Sabbath over the entire continent of Europe, shows how little patronage such a day receives from the world, and sufficiently accounts for the deterioration which in any instance it has suffered. Whence is this state of matters not uni­ versal 1 Whence has it never been universal ] Whence is it that the institution flourishes in some places, and is seen springing up in others where it had been trodden down 1 The only answer is, it is a tree which has been planted, and is under the care of the superintending Providence,— of Him who, while in justice* He removes it from the hands of violence, is in mercy disposed not utterly to take away, but even to cherish and restore what is so medicinal to the nations. In our motto we have applied to the Sabbath the words of the sagacious Gamaliel, uttered 1800 years ago. According to him, Christianity must have long ago perished if it had been of men. It has not been overthrown. Neither has the Sabbath. Let his warning be pondered by all who set themselves against the friends of either : “ Kefrain from these men, and let them alone; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” TESTIMONY OE REVELATION TO A SACRED AND PERPETUAL SABBATH. CH APTER I. d iv in e in st it u t io n of the sabba th a t t h e creation, AND ITS OBSERVANCE BY THE PATRIARCHS. “ The Sahbath was made for man.” THE'evidence for a weekly day of rest and devotion is of great variety and amount. Geography points to traces of the institution in almost every region of the globe. History records its early existence, its course of many centuries, and its remarkable preser­ vation amidst the countless changes and hostile influences of society. Physiology, concedes its sanitary power. Mental philo­ sophy proclaims its intellectual adaptations. Ethics, law, and biography, together attest its importance to man as a moral and religious being • and economic science acknowledges its intimate connexion with individual comfort and social prosperity. Contri­ butions such as these are of no slight value to the cause which they favour. They are, independently, capable of showing that the distribution of our time into six days of labour and one of holy rest is an arrangement too long-lived, too wide-spread, too wise, pure, and benevolent, to have “ sprung of earth.” They echo the announcements of Scripture. They ought thus to confirm the faith of the Christian, and induce unbelievers to bow to claims which so many witnesses concur without collusion to establish. It is no depreciation, however, o'f the evidence supplied by reason and experience on behalf of the institution, to say, that the Sab- 274 TESTIMONY OP REVELATION. 2 7 5 bath derives its best support and defence from the sacred Scrip­ tures, which in its turn it so eminently serves to make known. It is in the testimony of revelation that perfect confidence as to the Divine origin and authority of the ordinance finds its inspira­ tion and strength, and it is there alone that we discover the in­ fallible rule, which must be followed, if we would rightly discharge the obligations, and fully receive the blessings of the day of rest. The testimony of revelation concerning the Sabbatic institution may be comprised under three heads— its Divine obligation on mankind in all time, its Duties, and its Importance. Following this order, we proceed, in the first instance, to the illustration of a series of propositions on the subject of the Divine, universal, and permanent obligation of the institution.. FIRST PROPOSITION.— THE SABBATH WAS INSTITUTED BY GOD AT THE CREATION. In the Book of Genesis, after his beautifully simple but magni­ ficent account of the creation of the heavens and the earth, the sacred historian proceeds as follows :— “ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. * And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it : because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”1 No improvement in the translation would affect the substantial meaning of these words, which are generally admitted to be a faithful version of the original language. A critical examination of the terms employed, and the light of parallel texts, would only confirm the views of the passage which a first reading at once ascertains. Without dwelling on the superlative value of the information here and in the preceding chapter for the first time recorded respecting the original of the world and of man, let us mark the leading facts as they bear upon our subject. God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. As the Almighty “ fainteth not, neither is weary,” i Gen. ii. 1-3. 2 7 6 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. and as “ the Father worketh hitherto” in the production of human spirits, and in the sustentation and government of the universe, his rest on this occasion is obviously to he understood in a sense compatible with the constant activity and worthy of the majesty of the Creator— as a rest not from all work, but from the one work specified— a rest of cessation and satisfaction, not of languid repose.1 He who afterwards on renewing the face of the earth rejoiced in Lis works, did, after making heaven and earth in six days, rest on the seventh, and “ was refreshed,”2 regarding with complacency and delight his completed creation. While the Creator pronounced all the works'of the six days to be very good, he reserved his benediction for the day of rest. “ And God blessed the seventh day.” When human beings utter words of blessing, they are only helpless petitioners. But it is the practice, as it is the prerogative, of the Divinity to impart the good which he pronounces with his lips. And he blesses creatures variously according to their natures ; men, by bestowing favours which rational beings can alone relish and enjoy; the lower animals, agreeably to their limited capacities, opening his hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing; and “ things without life,” by making them the meana of benefit and pleasure to intelle^ual and sentient creatures. In this last-mentioned form did he bless the seventh day. In no other mode could un­ conscious, insensible time be blessed. That day was distinguished above the others by being constituted a season and means of pecu­ liar advantage and happiness. The seventh day was devoted to sacred use, “ God sanctified it.” The radical idea in “ sanctify,” as the word is employed by the inspired writers, is separation from a common to a holy pur­ pose, consecration to the Divine service.3 Like blessing, sancti­ fication is predicated of beings according to their natures. As all days are God’s, and ought to be spent in his work, the sanctify- i Shabath, as in 1 Sam. xxv. 9; Job xxxii. 1, “ signifleth not such a rest as wherein one sitteth and doeth nothing, as the word Noach doth, but only a resting and ceasing from that which he did before.”—Leigh, Critica Sacra, sub. voc. “ It implies resting from, not in work.”—New Translation, by De Sola, etc. * Ex. xxxi. 17. s “ Ab usu et statu communiad peculiarem et sacrum separare.”—Eichhom. “ Uai- bus divinis accommodavit—a communi et pr rfano usu segregavit in usum sacrum—ad cultum Dei destinavit.”—Kirch. Concord. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 7 7 ing of the seventh in particular would be a meaningless expres- . sion, unless it indicated a special appropriation of the day to the worship and glory of the Creator. The benediction and sanctification of the seventh day had re­ spect to the Divine rest as their reason or cause. “ God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made,” or, as we have it in the Decalogue, “ In six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all things therein, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.”1 The holy day recalls its occasion. They are linked to­ gether. Nor is the association incidental. It is designed. It was manifestly the purpose and arrangement of the Author of nature, that the day which saw the creation finished should be s,et apart in honour of the great work, or rather of himself as its Architect. y The institution thus appointed at the creation was designed to be a law, right, and blessing to mankind in all time. There is every indication of universality in the primseval arrangement. The example of the Almighty in working and resting was in­ scribed as it were on the creation itself, and partook of the ex­ tent and durability of the workmanship of his hands. It was an example addressed to the father of mankind, and through him to ~~ all his posterity. That would have been no blessing to Adam himself, and none to any other, which should light and expend itself on one solitary day. The blessing was pronounced on that day as the first-fruits of all sacred time. It applied as truly as the blessing of marriage to Adam’s descendants. The seventh portion of time wras hallowed for all ages, when the earliest in­ stalment was sanctified. Having been prior to all special dispen­ sations of religion, the Sabbatic institution is not liable to perish with any. ^ The appointment is couched in terms that prove its capacity of incorporation with every economy. Its “ sound went into all the earth, and its words unto the ends of the world,” calling upon every human being to remember his Creator, and to enjoy the liberty and rest which He has provided for all who are willing to receive them. Who has any reason or authority for 1 Ex. xx. 11. 13 2 7 8 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. affirming that the law has become obsolete— that it does not re­ main in full force on the human family 1 And who may not, on the best grounds and with perfect confidence, say, “ Here is an indefeasible right on which I take my stand against every at­ tempt to deprive me of the seventh part of my time—here is a boon which, as divinely conferred, no man can justly or with im­ punity take away V’ SECOND PROPOSITION.---- WHILE NO FORMAL NOTICE OF THE INSTITUTION OCCURS IN THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY TILL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAVE DEPARTED FROM EGYPT, AND COMMENCED THEIR JOURNEY1NGS IN THE WILDERNESS OF ARABIA, CIRCUMSTANCES ARE RECORDED, WHICH, BUT FOR THE ANTECEDENT INSTITUTION AND CONTINUED OBLI­ GATION OF A SACRED SEVENTH DAY, COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MENTIONED, OR EVEN HAVE EXISTED. Although desirous to reserve controversy as much as possible to a subsequent stage of our discussion, and meanwhile to present simply the evidence for a permanent Sabbath, we cannot in justice to the latter object avoid reference here to the opinion maintained by Dr. Heylyn, Dr. Paley, and others, that notwith­ standing the early notice in Scripture of the sanctification by the Creator of the seventh day, its actual institution as a Sabbath did not occur till twenty-five centuries thereafter. It appears a remarkable psychological fact that the mind which so acutely detected and so skilfully collated the indications of design in nature, and the coincidences between the Acts and the Writings of the apostles, should have seen no appointment of a day of rest in the narrative of the Divine proceedings at the creation of the world, and not even the slightest allusion to such a day in the remaining history for so many years. Had the eye been as morally single— as purged from prejudice in favour of a theory as it was intellectually penetrating, might it not have discovered the materials for a Horce Sabbaticce, scarcely less interesting and con­ vincing than the Horce Paulinas l One of the circumstances that could not have occurred but for TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 7 9 the primaeval institution of the Sabbath is the narrative itself of the event, considered in its manner and place. No one can suppose that the sacred writer is there describing what was not to take place till many years after the creation, without imputing to him either incompetency to write history and to express his own thoughts, or a disregard of truth, inasmuch as he has intro­ duced a fact in such a connexion and in such terms as naturally and necessarily to lead us into the serious mistake that it was contemporaneous with the Creator’s rest from his work of six days. That an inspired man should so write is an impossibility. The interpretation, therefore, must be false. How, after the light which the transactions of Sin and Sinai had in the view of Israel shed on the Sabbath, the words describing it should appear where they are at all, is to be explained only by the fact and im­ portance of its early institution. A second circumstance that presupposes the primitive appoint­ ment of the weekly holy day is the respect which began soon after to be shown for the septenary number. Let it be observed that it was the Creator himself, in denouncing “ sevenfold” vengeance against the person that should take the life of Cain,1 who first employe^ the number as a synonym of completeness or perfection, and that by the same authority it continued to be -signalized in the arrangement that the beasts and fowls should be selected by sevens for preservation in the ark, in the allotted periods of plenty and scarcity in Egypt, in the prohibition of- leavened bread for seven days in the passover, and in many other intimations of the Divine will down to the time when the Apostle John had in Patmos his vision of the seven golden candlesticks, and of one in the midst of them like unto the Son of man. This use, then, of the number was no superstitious practice of human device. It was Divine speech, and it had an important meaning. But that meaning could not consist in any intrinsic value of the number above others, for it had no such value. The first mention of it in a new application stands in almost immediate connexion in the sacred history with the seventh day on which God rested from the work of creation, and that application is not arbitrary, the “ sevenfold” vengeance being a vengeance which completes its i Gen. iv. 15. 2 8 0 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. purpose, sheaths the sword, and is satisfied, even as the Creator finished his work, rested, and was refreshed. The language addressed to Cain had a meaning, and was intended to be under­ stood by all readers ; but where is the signification of “ sevenfold” to be found, if not in the preceding context 1 The meaning was the same to Cain as to them. And he and they are presented by the historian as having their eyes turned to the same great fact of a day of rest, blessed and sanctified when the world was . made. Nor is this all. That a marked respect for the septenary number has, by the Divine example and sanction, been evinced alike in the Pentateuch and in the Apocalypse is a proof that the Creator will have his name remembered, and a seventh day hal , lowed in all generations. No less significant in its bearing on our subject is the observance ; by the patriarchs of the weekly division of time. Noah “ stayed seven days” three several times before he “ sent forth the dove out of the ark.” 1 The friends of Job sat down with him, in token of their sympathy, seven days and seven nights.2 We read of the << week” in the days of Laban and Jacob.3 And Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days.4/f But whence this regard to periods of seven days 1 There was nothing in nature to suggest or recommend it for adoption any more than there was some peculiar excellence in the number “ seven” to secure for it a preference above other numbers. If there had, it would have been even more generally observed than it is. No human being would independently have conceived of such a notation of time — no number of human beings could have given it prevalence or perpetuity. The history, however, leaves no room for specula­ tion. It informs us that the week was appointed at the creation, not by any provision made on the fourth day in the lights which were to be “ for signs and seasons for days and years, but by the example of the Creator, who occupied six days in making the world, rested on the seventh, blessed and sanctified that day not the eighth, or following days, on which he alike rested from creative work ; and thus prescribed to us the same distribution of time, and of its work and rest, no less certainly or impressively, than’ if he had written the law on the phenomena of nature. i Gen. viii. 2 Job ii. 13. 8 Gen. xxix. 2T, 28. 4 Gen. L 10. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 8 1 From these facts we are led to infer what the week was which Noah and others observed, and why they so regulated their time. The week, as defined by the Creator, consisted of six days for work and a day of rest— of sacred rest; and such also must have been the week of the patriarchs. It is possible, indeed, for this cycle of time to be observed in some form after its Sabbath has ceased, but if the seventh day was and still is connected with sacred rites among heathen nations, is it conceivable that Noah could have forgotten or disregarded so important an alliance 1 His own piety, the language of God announcing to him that in seven days he would cause it to rain on the earth, and the warrant which the historian has given us for tracing a connexion of cause and effect between the week as originally appointed, and the week as ob­ served by the patriarch, all forbid the supposition that he did not work for six days, and rest and worship on the seventh. The prevalence of public worship, with its various accessories, necessarily implies the obligation and observance of a Sabbath. Religious assemblies are convened. Cain and Abel come together for Divine service. They were not the only persons present, as appears from Cain's postponement of his murderous deed till he and his victim were out of the sight of others in the field. This is the first recorded instance of public worship, if we may apply that epithet to a convocation and exercises on the small scale of an infant society. In the time of Seth “ men began to call on the name of the Lord j” not that they for the first time professed or practised religion, as the history proves, but that, whether they were then called by, or invoked the name of the Lord, their pro­ fession and practice had become more public. Twice are we told in the Book of Job that “ the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord,” and that Satan, as he has often since done, “ came also among them.” The services on such occasions are mentioned. There were sacrifices and offerings, which formed so important a part of ancient worship. Cain and Abel bring offerings. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob erect altars, and devote victims thereon to Jehovah. Bishop Patrick, in expound­ ing the account of the offerings of Cain and Abel, observes that the Hebrew word for brought is used never in reference to private and domestic sacrifices, but always of such as were in the times of 2 8 2 d iv in e a u t h o r it y of t h e s a b b a t h . the Jewish polity brought to the dooi of the tabernacle of the congregation. The friends of Job were divinely instructed to offer up for themselves a burnt-offering of seven bullocks and of seven rams. Instruction, too, was communicated in the assemblies for worship. Job had “ instructed many and strengthened the weak hands,” and where though not exclusively he had done so is inti­ mated in his words, “ I stood up and I cried in the congregation.” Noah was a preacher of righteousness. We read also of the sacraments of circumcision and the passover— and of a priesthood with tithes for its maintenance. As there was a law for the consecration of property and of a certain proportion of it to the service of God, it is to be presumed that there would be one for the consecration of a certain amount of time to the same purpose. For all this worship understood places of convocation were requisite. Cain and Abel “ came together into one place.” It is chiefly the scene of public ordinances that is favoured with the presence of the Lord, from which Satan is said twice to have gone forth, and Cain once and for ever. And even more necessary must have been appointed places of worship when men began on a large scale to call upon the name of the Lord. But set times were also indispensable. Order and fixed places demanded them. If the sons of Job had their days for feasting, we cannot reasonably doubt that the sons of God had their days for worship. And it was so. “ There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.” It was “ in process of time,” or rather, in the end of days, that Cain and Abel brought their offerings unto the Lord. We might plead that the time, like the age of a very young child, “ an infant of days,”1 admitted of reckoning not by years, months, or weeks, but by days. But it is sufficient for our purpose that the language unquestionably means an appointed season. We are informed in the Epistle to the Hebrews that Abel was accepted because he offered in faith, consulting the Divine will in regard to the matter, circumstances, and principle of the service. Cain was blamed, not for error as to the time or place, but for the state of his mind, and the blood­ less nature of his offering. We can conceive him overawed by the appointed day of rest and worship, and induced by the customary 1 Isa. lxv. 20. t e st im o n y o f r e v e l a t io n . 2 8 3 suspension of labour into a compliance with the law and the custom, but we cannot conceive of so secular a character leaving his farm on working days for the purpose of appearing at the altar of God. And the historian here again has warranted the conclusion that the time of these offerings was the seventh day. He has recorded the consecration of that day to rest and holy use, and must have known that, in proceeding soon after to mention the first case of social worship, nothing was more natural than for his readers to take for granted that on this occasion the day so set apart would be applied to its appropriate purpose. Aware that such was the inference which would be drawn from his manner of writing, has he not sanctioned that inference t Our position is confirmed by the remarkable instances of piety and virtue which distinguished the period under review. Is it requisite to name Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Job, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron ? It was by the grace of God, and in the observance of religious institutions, that they became what they were. That the Sabbath must have been a principal means in fostering the faith, by which those “ elders ob­ tained a good report,” appears from the felt and proved necsesity of a periodical day of rest and worship to the religion of present days. We have already cited the acknowledgment of one of the best men whom our age has produced— Edward Bickersteth— that, but for a weekly day given as entirely as possible to God, religion would soon have abandoned him. And all who in any measure resemble that excellent individual will readily indorse the remark. To con­ ceive that the patriarchs, who were men of like passions, men ex­ posed to like temptations, toils, and sufferings, with others, could maintain for centuries a holy and happy life, without the stimulus and refreshment of the Sabbath, is to suppose a case which, if true, would prove the uselessness of the institution in any circum­ stances, but which, in fact, is a simple impossibility and a mere dream. The long life and prosperity attained by good men in primitive ' times utter the same language. It was the arrangement of Pro vidence, for important ends, that those men should live “ many days, and “ see good.” But we have no reason to believe that 2 8 4 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. their longevity was miraculous, or their success achieved indepen­ dently of their own efforts. Both blessings were bestowed in connexion with their diligence, temperance, and care— both are divinely pledged to a race yet to come, and to them as sacredly observant of the weekly rest. What has been said in this volume of the necessity of the institution to health, prosperity, to mental, moral, and religious culture, while it applies to the present and the future, must have been equally true of the remote past. Once moreptf there are incidents in the history of Israel in Egypt which give indication of a pre-existing Sabbatism. Moses and Aaron, by the direction and in the name of Jehovah, asked of Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go, that they might hold a feast unto God in the wilderness. What the feast was appears from the answer of the King of Egypt to their demand : “ Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works ] Get you unto your burdens. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest [sabbatize] from their b u r d e n s a n d more decisively from the fact, that no sooner had the people gained their liberty than they celebrated “ the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord,” feasting on the bread of heaven. Before this time, and on the very eve of the Exode, the Passover was insti­ tuted, where the Sabbatic circumstances of “ seven days,” “ resting from all manner of work,” and “ holy convocations, ’ are all men­ tioned as matters with which it is taken for granted that they were well acquainted. The doctrine of a paradisiacal and patriarchal Sabbath does not depend on the circumstances now reviewed, but however imper­ fectly they may have been stated, we venture to call for this ver­ dict from our readers, that but for the antecedent institution and continued observance of a sacred seventh day these circumstances could not have existed. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 8 5 CHAPTER II. THE SABBATH PROMULGATED FROM SINAI AS ONE OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MORAL LAW. “ Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy.” W h e n we pass from the Patriarchal to the Jewish dispensation of religion, we discover increasing evidence that the Sabbath was designed to be a law and blessing to mankind. That under an economy so different in many respects from that which preceded it, and providing so many additional seasons for worship, the aboriginal holy day was not superseded, but retained with superadded tokens of respect, .was a circumstance which gave promise of its continu­ ing to hold a place among the laws and ordinances of heaven while the world itself should last. THIRD PROPOSITION.— THE SABBATH, AS INSTITUTED AT THE CREATION, HAD A PLACE ASSIGNED TO IT IN THE MORAL LAW GIVEN FROM SINAI. When the Almighty gave forth the Law of the Decalogue with his own voice from Sinai, one of the utterances was, “ Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.” 1 1 Ex. xz. 9-11. id* 2 8 6 d iv in e a u t h o r it y o f t h e s a b b a t h . That the Decalogue was not even as a code prescribed to the Jews only, or abrogated along with the other laws of* Moses, but epitomizes the duty of human beings in all places and times, appears from the distinction conferred in Scripture on its precepts above the other commandments delivered to the Jewish people— from the catholic nature of the precepts themselves, and from their declared obligation on mankind. 1. The Scriptures have in various and unequivocal forms done special honour to the law of the ten commandments. * Its promulgation was heralded by solemn preparations. “ Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain.” He is instructed to inform Israel of the Divine con­ descension and kindness about to be shown to them in the cove­ nant to be established between God and them, and the necessity of holy obedience on their part, that they might be a peculiar treasure unto him above all people. He intimates these things to the people, and “ returns their words unto the Lord.” For two days they must sanctify themselves, that they might be ready on the third day, on which Jehovah was to come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Death was to be the penalty of going up into the mount, or touching'the border of it. “ And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God : and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire : and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole moun­ tain quaked greatly.”1 In these circumstances of glory, grandeur, and terrible majesty, which made Moses himself say, “ I exceedingly fear and quake,” did Jehovah proclaim with his own lips the ten commandments. And thus, not only by priority of promulgation, but by the august solemnities attending it, did he distinguish these commandments above the civil and ceremonial statutes which were afterwards privately communicated to Moses. “ These words the Lord spake 1 Ex. six. 1618. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 8 7 unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more.” But in reference to “ the law of command­ ments contained in ordinances,” it is said: “ But as for thee stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the command­ ments, and the statutes, and the judgments which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.” 1 — Nor was this all. It is possible for ingenuity, under a partial bias, to make too much of the following circumstances ; but to deny that they impressively teach us the distinction of the De­ calogue above the other laws of the Jews would seem to be “ a refusing of him that spake on earth.” The law of the ten com­ mandments, uttered by “ the great voice” •• of God, was also written by his own finger. It was too holy and glorious to be spoken “ with the tongues of men and of angels,” or tQ be taken down from the Divine lips by any human amanuensis. The Law­ giver must proclaim his eternal law with his own mouth, and indite it with his own hand. Twice was it so written. It was inscribed on tablets of stone, and in this form deposited in the ark, with all the security which incorruptible shittim-wood, and gold overlaid within, without, and above, could provide, and under the overshadowing cherubim, and inviolable Shechinah. But no Divine voice is heard announcing the laws of a temporary polity, or of a shadowy ritual; they are uttered in the ears of Moses alone. No Divine finger traces their written characters ; for this the hand of Moses is deemed adequate. They are com­ mitted to no secure and precious casket; but placed beside the ark, as things warranting less reverence and care, and ready to be removed. In all these honours of the ten “ words,” the fourth commandment fully shared. Prefaced by the same solemnities, attended by thunders and lightnings, articulated by the Divine voice, all its words engraved by the Divine finger, and intrusted to the sacred keeping of the ark, who could have any reason to imagine that the Sabbath was a Jewish rite, belonging entirely to a covenant which was to decay, wax old, and be ready to vanish away 1 i Deut. v. 22, 31. 2 8 8 DIVINE AUTHORITY OP THE SABBATH. The language in which the laws of the Jews are respectively mentioned in several parts of Scripture concurs with the circum­ stances now mentioned in discriminating them from each other. Not that the transitory rules of their politico-ecclesiastical state are ever absolutely depreciated. They are included in “ the right judgments and true laws, the good statutes and commandments,” “ which were given them by the hand of Moses.” The neglect or transgression of them was held to be an act of contempt to the Divine Lawgiver and King, and was visited with severe retribu­ tion. The loss of them in the Captivity was deplored as one of Israel’s chief calamities ; their recovery is promised as one of their greatest mercies. But there are several statements which indicate the inferiority of these privileges to others. Thus it is written in Hosea, “ For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice ; and the know­ ledge of God more than burnt-offerings ;” 1 and in Jeremiah, “ I spake notunto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offer­ ings and sacrifice ; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice.” 2 We have similar statements in the New Tes­ tament : “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !” says our Lord, “ for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” 3 How different the terms in which two of the apostles speak of the law of ceremonies and the law of morality ! In referring to the former, the apostle Peter asks, “ Now, there­ fore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the dis­ ciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” 4 while the apostle Paul says of another law— plainly that of the Decalogue— “ Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good. We know that the law is spiritual; I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” 5 And when mentioning the “ advantage”— the profit which belonged to “ the Jew”— to “ circumcision,” largely and “ every way,” the writer does not fail to give the preference to this one of their privileges, “ that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” Compar- 1 Hos. v i 6. * Jer. vii. 22, 23. » M att vrffl 23. * Acta xv. 10. * Rom. v ii 12,14, 22. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 8 9 ing these passages with each other, we arrive at the conclusion that the law of the Decalogue was honoured above the other laws. 2. When from the manner in which the laws of the Jews were delivered, and from the language of the sacred writers respecting them, we turn to the laws themselves, and consider their nature and designs, we discover further proofs of their diversity, and that they fall under two distinct classes. One class, consisting of ceremonial and political regulations, weie, like some of the ordinances of Christianity, manifestly pro- \ hied, not for all time, but for the period of the particular economy to which they were attached and adapted. As the Lord’s Supper would not have been appropriate to the circumstances of the Jews, so neither would the Passover have been congruous to those of Christians. And what is true of the Passover is true of the whole Jewish polity and ritual, which were suited exclusively to a certain spot of earth, as wrell as to a people that stood in special relations to the Almighty, and had extraordinary functions to fulfil. With the enlaigement of the church beyond its former pale, the cessation of the theocracy, and the accomplishment of the objects that were to be attained by the severance of Israel from other nations, the authority of their rites and political code came to an end. This fact we lead in the utter inapplicability of the ancient priesthood and sacrifices to a period when the substance of these shadows has been realized, and in the impossibility that a system which demanded a periodical resort to Jerusalem for worship, the sus­ pension of agricultural industry at certain times, and various other peculiarities, should be practised by men scattered over the globe, and having no miraculous means of defence, guidance, or support! And yet these transitory rules were as really binding while their occasion lasted as any of the most enduring commandments. They were founded on the one great law of love to God and man, in which our Lord has summarily expressed all human obligations. They involved in them the undying principles of truth and right­ eousness. The Mosaic ritual was another form of the everlasting gospel. Circumcision and the Passover pointed to the most mo­ mentous fiicts and blessings, as do still our baptism and eucharist. And the judicial law was distinguished by its perfect equity, and by its merciful regard to the stranger, the widow, the fatherless, T 290 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. and even the lower animals. The change which befell these in* stitutions was the annulling, not of principles or of essential law, but of certain applications of them, or of subsidiary arrangements, when the object of such bye-laws had been gained. The other class of laws— those of the ten commandments— are evidently of such a nature as to be adapted and necessary not to the Jews alone, but to men of all countries and times. If it was right for the Jew to have no god but the one living and true G od; to employ no images in his worship; to serve Him in spirit and in truth; to spend one day in seven in resting from ordinary work and in sacred engagements; to honour parents ; to have respect to the life, purity, property, and reputation of himself and others, and to shun all covetous desire,— the same things must be right for the Gentile. If these commands were holy and just, and could not be violated without sin and injury as regarded the former, they are plainly as holy and just, and the transgression of them as truly deserving of blame and punishment in the case of the latter. If they were good to the one, it is impossible to conceive how they are not good to the other. They are, in fact, the laws of nature and of God to every human being. All this,'indeed, is generally admitted as to nine of these commandments. The only question respects the fourth, which some hold to be only one of a number of Jewish rites, and doomed to share their fate. But what is there- in the law of the Sabbath to make it an exception 1 It provides rest from labour. Its very name signi­ fies a ceasing from work. Other days are in contradistinction from it called working days. “ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” But for six thousand years man and beast have been subject to exhausting labour, and it would be no easy task to show how the Jews needed a day of rest more than many others both in ancient and in present times, or to prove that Christianity is less merciful to toiling man and his weary beast than was any preceding dispen­ sation of religion. That the law of rest contemplated a much wider range of application than the people of Palestine appears ’t e s t im o n y o f r e v e l a t io n . 291 from the little labour which for forty years after the proclamation of the law from Sinai they had to perform, and from their mira­ culous exemption during many years of their subsequent history from much of the toil of other men. The Sabbath was also an appointed season of mental improve­ ment and spiritual good. And was the soul more precious, or its salvation and improvement more important in Judea than in any other part of the world— in the days of Moses than in those of Abraham or of Christ 1 A more spiritual economy would rather imply the necessity of higher mental cultivation, and of greater attention to “ the things that belong to our peace.” But how would it be possible for the majority of our people to acquire the one and do the other without a Sabbath 1 It is easy to talk of the freedom from restraint, and the liberty .secured by Chris­ tianity ; but unless we have a set day and place for religious duties, they cannot fail to be neglected. Christians, as much as the good men of a former economy, have found that a day for a periodical dismissing from their minds of all secular business and cares, and for directing their thoughts and regards to “ the things that are above,” is indispensable to their preparation for a future world. The Sabbath, in short, was a stated day of sacred service in honour of its almighty and gracious Author. Having rested from his work of creation, God blessed and sanctified the Sab­ bath-day. But the creation of the world by Jehovah is a fact which respects, not one nation only, but mankind, and the belief of which is fundamental to all true religion. If it was the duty of the Jews to remember their Creator, no less was it the duty of the patriarchs, and no less is it the duty of men now. If the one stood in need of the knowledge of God as the maker of all things, and required a Sabbath as the means, equally were these blessings indispensable to the others. If the Sabbath in old time was marked more than ordinary days by typical shadows of a coming Saviour, is it reasonable to conceive that there should be no day to remind us, by its returning rest and meditations, of the great Redemption— a wrork which, like the creation, concerns men of every time and class, and is much more glorious than any other work or deliverance of the Almighty 1 How comprehen- 2 9 2 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. sive in itself, and how decisive of this, as of other questions on the subject, is the maxim of our Lord, “ The Sabbath was made for man!” 3. But the proof of the permanence of the Decalogue is com­ pleted and sealed by the fact of the declared obligation of its pre­ cepts under all economies. Formally given from Sinai, it had been the rule of man’s con­ duct from the beginning. In the history recorded in Genesis we find traces of the knowledge of all the ten commandments. The offerings of Abel, Noah, and others, and the language to Abra­ ham, “ I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou per­ fect,” prove that these persons were acquainted with the obliga­ tion to worship and serve the one living and true God. That the use of images in worship was forbidden appears from Jacob’s exhortation to his family .to put away strange gods. The rever­ ential regard to the Divine name which is required in the third commandment is implied in the practice of administering an oath, and in the prevalent respect for promises thus solemnized. The honour due to parents was acknowledged in the conduct of Noah’s sons, as also in their father’s prophetic intimation of its conse­ quences, in the obedience of Isaac to Abraham, and in other in­ stances. Cain was condemned for taking the life of his brother, and was conscious of his guilt, while at the commencement, again as it were, of the world, after the flood, the law subsequently form­ ing the sixth in the Decalogue was impressively renewed. The indignation of Jacob’s sons on account of the dishonour done to their sister, the father’s resentment of the cruelty by which they avenged the deed, and the conduct of Joseph, with his words, “ How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God1?” showed the authority of the seventh as well as of the sixth. The protest of Joseph’s brethren against the charge of theft indicated that both parties were acquainted with the precept which says, “ Thou shalt not steal.” The same knowledge on the part of Laban and Jacob is proved in the matter of the stolen images. The ninth precept was known even to Pharaoh, the contemporary of Abraham, as was manifested by his remonstrance with the patriarch for not adhering to truth in representing his wife as his sister. And kings are recorded to have been punished for their TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 9 3 covetousness. It might be reasonably concluded from the pre­ ceding instances of respect for nine of the commandments that the Sabbatic law was in force ; but we are not left to this inferen­ tial mode of ascertaining the fact, there being none of the pre­ cepts of the Decalogue presented in so full detail as the fourth is presented in the narrative of the original appointment of the day of sacred rest. But not only were the patriarchs under Divine law,— the same law which after their time was fo'i'mally given to their de­ scendants. The heathen who never had any communication with the children of Abraham, and who were not within hearing of the thunders of Sinai, and “ the great voice” of the Lawgiver, were under law to God. The apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans classes them with the Jews, as composing that “ world” which is throughout “ guilty before God,” and charges them with every variety of sin. But where no law is, there is no transgres­ sion. Yet they knew that “ they who commit such things” as “ unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malicious­ ness, hatred of God, pride, disobedience to parents,” and other sins, “ are worthy of death.” “ For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves : which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” They are indeed said to be “ without law.” They were destitute of the knowledge of the will of God as contained in the sacred oracles, or, according to the language of these oracles, “ He show'eth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation.” “ What advantage hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision ? Much every way : chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” In the Law and Gospel knowrn to the Jews, the one more clearly than to other nations, the other exclusively, both classes were alike concerned, else where would have been the alleged advantage of the Jew ? The Gentiles and the Jews are supposed by the apostle to be under the same law, known, indeed, in different degrees, but so known by both as that the former who h%ve not the law are said 2 9 4 b iv in e a u t h o r it y of t h e s a b b a t h . when obedient to do by nature the things contained in the law, and to show the work of the law written in their hearts, while the Jews are said to “ do the same” as the Gentiles when both transgress it. And it is when the apostle has proved that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, that he thus declares the result of their trial by the everlasting rule of righteousness : “ Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law : that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” It is not questioned that the Jews were under the law of the Decalogue. It only remains, then, to inquire whether we have evidence that its obligation descends to Christians. In more than one respect is it true that they are delivered from the law given to Israel. With the political part of that law as a directory, except as regards its principles and maxims of eternal morality, they have no concern. They are fre«d or rather ex­ empted from any obligation to observe the Levitical ceremonies. And there is a sense in which they are delivered from the De­ calogue itself, but delivered in a manner that binds them the more strongly to its requirements. The law of the ten command­ ments, proclaimed from Sinai, was, as it had been since the fall of man, a law of condemnation and curse as well as a law of liberty. It is so under the dispensation of the Gospel. Thus the apostle Paul says, “ Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them and thus the apostle James, “ Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” No one was more stern in preaching the terrors of the law than the Saviour him­ self. And what was the purpose of all this 1 It was that sinful mem might be delivered from the condemnation and curse of the law, and brought to obey its precepts, the very precepts for trans­ gressing which they were condemned, but which are still their rule, as unbending as ever, yet rendered practicable and attrac­ tive by the Saviour’s atonement, love, and grace. “ We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the old­ ness of the letter. What shall we say then i Is the law sin ] God forbid. *The law is holy, and the commandment t e st im o n y of r e v e l a t io n . 2 9 5 holy, just, and good. I delight in the law of God after the in­ ward man.” That Christians are under the law of the ten commandments is the doctrine of the New Testament. “ Think not,” said Christ, “ that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but who­ soever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”1 That our Lord here, under the ex­ pression “ the kingdom of heaven,” refers to the Christian dis­ pensation, is certain. He and John the Baptist announced that dispensation under the same phrase, “ the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And that he speaks of the law of the Decalogue is manifest from the immediately subsequent words of his sermon, in which he proceeds to expound and enforce some of its precepts, vindicating them from the perversions and limitations by which the Jews had corrupted them. He does not specify every one of the commandments; but a general proposition respecting a law, illustrated by a-few examples, must be understood as involving a principle applicable to all the particulars of that law. The Sab­ bath is not mentioned, neither is the Fifth Commandment. Our Lord, however, takes other opportunities of freeing both from Jewish additions and abuses— the Fifth, in the case of the person who, that he might be exempted from the duty of applying his property in aid of his parents, called it “ corban,” or something devoted to God ; and the Fourth in numerous instances. It is a striking confirmation of our views that our Lord never does honour to any ceremonial or judicial enactment by redeeming it from the false glosses of the scribes and Pharisees. On various other occasions did our Lord so speak and act as beyond all doubt to teach us the continued obligation of the Decalogue. Thus, when the young man asked what good thing lie should do that he might have eternal life, Jesus replied, “ If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com m andm entsand then, l M att v. 17-10. 296 DIVINE AUTHORITY OE THE SABBATH. in answer to another question inquiring what these were, said, “ Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother : and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”1 Here five of the ten commandments are speci­ fied, and affirmed to be binding. Our Lord’s purpose was to show the individual his true character, and it was sufficient for this end to set before him a part of the law. But by this selection he has attested the authority of the whole Decalogue. Our Lord teaches the same doctrine to the lawyer who asked which was the great commandment in the law, when he said, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”2 As in his language to the young man, he had summed up the precepts of the second table in love to our neighbour, so here he comprehends the whole Decalogue in love to God and man, declaring as plainly as language could express it that every one of the ten commandments continues in all its ancient authority. The language of the apostles, in like manner, recognises the permanence of the Decalogue. In applying the Fifth Command­ ment to the children, of Christian parents, and enforcing it by its ancient promise of long life,3 the apostle Paul has no idea that the language in the land made the precept a merely Jewish one, as originally given, but clearly regards it as one which embraced the Gentiles as well as the Jews— the time to come as well as the time then present. How indubitably does the same apostle re­ cognise the obligation of the ten commandments in the Epistle to the Romans, when he says, “ Do we make void the law through faith 1 God forbid ; yea, we establish the law”— when he de­ clares “ the law” to be “ holy, and the commandment to be holy, just, and good and when he expressly enjoins specific precepts of the law.4 The apostle James, also, thus writes respecting the law of the ten commandments : “ Whosoever shall keep the whole 1 Matt. six. 16-19. 3 Eph. vi. 1-3. 2 Matt. xxii. 37-40. 4 Rom. iii. 31, vit 12, xliL 9. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 297 law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. How, if thou commit no adultery, yet, if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”1 The principle here implied would warrant equally the statement, “ He that said, Honour thy parents, said also, Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Now, if thou do no dishonour to thy parents, yet, if thou profane the Sabbath, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” 1 James ii. 10,1L 2 9 8 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER III. THE SABBATH, UNDER A CHANGE OF DAY, A CHRISTIAN ORDINANCE AND LAW. “ And it shall come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” FOURTH PROPOSITION.---- A VARIETY OF CIRCUMSTANCES CON­ CURRED TO JUSTIFY THE CONFIDENT EXPECTATION, THAT THE SABBATIC INSTITUTION WAS TO BE PERPETUATED UNDER CHRISTIANITY. When this last and best dispensation of religion was introduced the world stood as much as ever in need of a Sabbath. The physical nature and necessities of mankind remained the same as they had been. A time had been predicted when “ the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to ” should be removed or abated, but it has not yet fully come, and when it shall come, there is no reason for conceiving that it will bring with it the entire cessa­ tion of fatiguing exertion. “ They shall labour,” but “ not in v a i n t h e y shall build houses and inhabit them ; plant vine­ yards and eat their fruit. The absence of all labour would be a curse and not a blessing. Far advanced as we are in the nine­ teenth century o f Christianity, we see man and beast still wearied with toil, and still requiring the rest of night and of every seventh day. When men became Christians, they continued to have mental and religious wants. All of them needed for the improvement of their intellectual faculties a weekly change of employment, and for their moral and spiritual welfare a frequently returning season of rest from their ordinary business, and of instruction, reflection, and devotion. Many of them had scarcely any other means of TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 2 9 9 mental improvement, or any other opportunity of deliberately attending to their own eternal interests, and those of their children, than a Sabbath afforded. And there is still no possibility that human beings can live piously, morally, and happily, without a day of sacred rest. To imagine that Christianity would, in these unchanged circumstances of man, be without its holy day, would be to suppose that it would be less wise, pure, and bene­ volent, than preceding economies, or rather, that it would be so different a system as to be no religion at all. There remained also the irrevocable obligation of worship in all its parts—personal, domestic, and public, and how any human being in the present condition of society could observe that wor­ ship in a manner becoming the claims of its great object, and with any satisfaction or advantage to himself, or rather how he could observe it at all, it is for them who would improve on the plans of Divine wisdom and benevolence to show. Besides the existence of the same necessity for the Sabbath, such an institution was capable of yielding the same advantages as ever, and it was to be presumed from the promises of a happier era that Divine blessings, instead of being restricted, would be continued and even increased. The statute of the primaeval rest, too, was unrepealed. All along from the time of its institution to the departure of Israel from Egypt— even though it were true that in a brief history it is not alluded to— it remained a standing rule for the world. When next expressly introduced, it is in the form not of a revoca­ tion, but of a revival. Immediately thereafter, it is solemnly recognised in a law promulgated for mankind. Had the proceed­ ings in Sin, or at Sinai, issued in an appointment that contra­ vened or superseded the original enactment, there would be a plea fyr the opinion that the Sabbath of Paradise had ceased. But what plea of this nature can be preferred where that institution is made the basis of legislation, and its ancient reason, character, and sanction, only in expanded form and more solemn manner, renewed 1 The law given from Sinai, in like manner as that given in Eden, remained in full force. Christ was careful to clear it from Jewish corruptiqns, and if there was any precept more particularly vindi­ 3 0 0 DIVINE AUTHORITY OP THE SABBATH. cated by him and honoured than another, it was that requiring the Sabbath-day to be kept holy. It is not the practice of a wise man to repair a house which he is about to pull down. Add to such reasons for expecting a Christian holy day the fact, that the hope was cherished by Old Testament predictions and promises, which declared that the Sabbath would exist, be honoured and blessed under the reign of Messiah. In more than one part of this volume are the prophetic and gracious intimations on these points quoted and considered. Let us only, after re­ ferring our readers to the fifty-sixth and fifty-eighth chapters of Isaiah, where there are glowing representations of the coming dis­ pensation with its Sabbatic blessings for men of all classes, and its house of prayer for all people, advert for a moment to the last sentence but one in the writings of that prophet. It is this : “ And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”1 It is not the meaning of these words, that a time is coming when every day will resemble the day of the new moon and the Sabbath-day, that is, when its holier service of God will be like a worship all the month and week over. It is true that the Word of God holds out the prospect of a time when the labours of our race in procuring what is necessary for food and defence will be diminished, and when their opportunities for attending to the soul will be multiplied. But it is not said that they shall come from day to day, but from month to month, and from week to week. In the language of Scripture as well as in common speech, what is done from year to year, as in the case of the command of Israel to keep the passover from year to year, is done annually— what is done from month to month, or from week to week, is done monthly or weekly. Nor is it the meaning of these words, that the stated Jewish days— new moons and Sabbaths— should be continued or revived in future times. The Scripture must be expounded in consistency with itself. If there are to be the Jewish times, there must also be priests and Levites, and an actual repairing of “ all flesh” to the literal Jerusalem. If on the other hand, the priests and Levites of a preceding verse denote 1 Isaiah lxvi. 23. TESTIMONY OP REVELATION. 301 the office-bearers of the Christian Church, and if Jerusalem signify the church itself, then the new moons and Sabbaths must only refer to the seasons of public worship under Christianity whatever these seasons may be. In no other way could the prophet have made himself understood than by mentioning religious observances as they then prevailed. All that we are warranted, therefore, to draw from the verse before us is, that as the people of Judea at set times repaired to Jerusalem to worship, and as they observed their new moons and Sabbaths, so in a future age all flesh, or men of every land, shall connect themselves with the church of God, and engage from month to month, and from week to week, in “ its stated observances and solemn forms.” 1 FIFTH PROPOSITION.-----WHILE A VARIETY OP CIRCUMSTANCES HELD OUT THE PROSPECT OF A PERENNIAL HOLY DAY, THERE WERE OTHERS THAT TENDED TO PREPARE THE MINDS OF MEN FOR SOME CHANGE IN THE INSTITUTION. It had already undergone changes in its relations and bearings. From being a simple rule of duty it became a part of the condition on which depended man’s,happiness. It passed into the provi­ sions of the covenant of grace. It was received into the Jewish economy, and in that connexion was a memorial of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, as well as of the world s creation a political regulation and a ceremonial type, as well as a moral law. These were precedents which indicated that there might be future changes in the application, which should not affect the substance, of the institution. A dispensation so important, and in some respects so new as that of Christianity, might be presumed to require, in adaptation to its own character and purposes, some alterations in the Sabbath. It might be expected, for example, that the work of redemption would have a prominent niche and statue in this monumental institute. The Scriptures had presented this work as one that should cast all preceding works into shade. They had told us of a new creation more glorious than the old, and therefore more 1 Alexander’s Prophecies of Isaiah. u 3 0 2 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. entitled to remembrance ; of a redemption more precious far than the rescue from Egyptian thraldom, and therefore much more worthy to be immortalized. If the material creation merited a memorial, still more the moral; if the temporal deliverance of a single nation deserved to have an institution enacted in its honour, incalculably more the spiritual and eternal salvation of a multitude that no man can number. Nor were there wanting intimations of what the necessary change would be. The seventh was. an important day under the Mosaic economy, but various instances occur in which the eighth was honoured. Circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had yet being uncircumcised, was to be administered on the eighth day. On the eighth day were the first­ born of cattle to be offered to the Lord, and the sheaf of the first-fruits to be presented and accepted. On that .day the con­ secration of Aaron and his sons, and the sanctification of the Temple, were completed. These and similar transactions were shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ. And where shall we find an eighth day signalized by any doings or blessings of Christ correspondent with those types except the day on which He rose from the dead 1 There is one typical representation in particular that calls for remark. It occurs in Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple. That this vision was not realized in the building of the second temple appears from, besides other facts, the differences in its worship from that prescribed by the law of Moses j and that there will be no literal fulfilment of it at a future day, is obvious from several considerations, one of which is sufficient, and is, that sacrifice is for ever abolished by Christ, so that to attempt its revival would be to deny His sacrifice. The only supposable accomplishment of the vision is in the condition of the Christian Church : And what is there that fulfils the following prediction, if not the first day of the week and its Christian worship 1 “ And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priest shall make your burnt-offerings upon the altar, and your peace-offerings ; and I will accept you, saith the Lord.” 1 1 Ezek, xliii. 27. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 0 3 SIXTH PROPOSITION.— THE FACTS RECORDED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, AS REGARDS BOTH THE PERPETUITY AND BLESSINGS OF THE SABBATH, AND THE CHANGE OF ITS DAY, HAVE FULFILLED THE PREDICTIONS AND REALIZED THE TYPES, OF THE OLD. The obligation of observing the seventh day as the Sabbath has ceased. This is conclusively established by a variety of evidence. It appears from several passages in the New Testament that on the introduction of Christianity attempts were made by certain converts from among the Jews to impose upon Gentile believers the observance of the law of Moses, particularly circumcision, the distinction of meats, and sacred seasons. Such attempts were repeatedly resisted by the apostles. We have the judgment of the apostle Paul on the subject, as regarded the days of the old ritual, in these words to the Colossians : “ Let no man judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days : which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” 1 In the preceding verses the apostle had referred to the privilege enjoyed by the Christians at Colosse, of freedom from the obligation to observe Jewish ceremonies. They had been circumcised, indeed, but it was with “ the circum­ cision made without hands.” “ The handwriting of ordinances, which was contrary” both to them and to the apostle, had been « taken out of the way by Christ, who nailed it to his cross.” And then, in the words before us, they are told that no man ought to judge or condemn them in reference to meat or drink, a holy day or festival, the new moon or Sabbath-days. The word in the original for Sabbath-days is plural, and always in that form has the sense of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament. In its singular form it is employed with the same meaning, only two exceptions being pleaded for in which it is supposed by some to clarbteTEb Christian Sabbath,2 and which will again come under our noticed Whether, Then, we consider the relation of the words to the apostle’s subject and purpose, the connexion of confessedly Jewish ceremonies with the Sabbath-days in the verse, or the meaning of this term itself, we must believe that the Colossian 1 Col ii. 16, IT. * Matt. xxiv. 20 ; Acts xiii. 42. 3 0 4 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. converts, and, by parity of reason, ail Christians, were by this sentence of the apostle exempted from the obligation of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, as really as they were from that of paying regard to the distinctions in food, the festivals, and new moons of the preceding economy. The same, or at least a corresponding truth, is taught in the words addressed to the Galatians (iv. 9-11): “ But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage 1 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” But as it is not said that Christians were raised above the necessity, or deprived of the advantage and enjoyment of meat and drink, so neither is it intimated that they were to have no set day of sacred rest and service. The text must be adhered to, and it relates to ritual matters alone— to Sabbaths, as, like new moons and holidays, forming a part of the Jewish ceremonial. Beyond the application of the term to what was common in Sabbath-days with distinctions in meat and drink, and with the festivals and new moons of the Jews, we have no warrant to go in interpreting the apostolic decree. Let us recol­ lect, besides, that the apostle is writing at the distance of thirty years from the date of our Lord’s resurrection, and at a time when the assembling of Christians for public worship on the first day of the week had become an established practice. The Colossians must, therefore, have understood him, not as setting aside all sabbatical observance which, without dropping a hint of discourage­ ment, he was aware prevailed under a change of day, but simply as discharging from obligation on conscience a day which every one knew to be the last of the week. While, moreover, his words discard the days of Judaism, they touch not the authority of the ancient statute of Paradise, and in undermining ceremonial rites, leave unshaken the moral foundation on which rests the prescrip­ tion, “ Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.” However they may be conceived to differ, the earlier deci­ sion on the subject of the observance of particular days in the Epistle to the Romans, is in unison with that in the Epistle to the Colossians, and furnishes additional evidence that the obli­ gation of observing the seventh day as a sacred day had been an­ TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 0 5 nulled. The apostle addressing the church at Rome, which was composed partly of converted heathen, and partly of converted Jews, and in which a diversity of view existed in reference to the keeping of certain days, says, “ One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day re- gardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” 1 As the design of the whole Epistle is to show that the way of salvation through Christ is opened alike to Jews and Gentiles, Jewish rites and ceremonies being superseded, and as abstinence from certain meats is adduced along with days, as the subject of difference on which the apostle de­ cides, it is obvious that the days in question are the Mosaic holy days. The class who had been Jews had a special regard for these days; the class who had been heathen attached no importance to them. In this case they were not to condemn each other, but to act on their respective conscientious convictions. Was this the language appropriate to the fact of the continued obligation of the ♦seventh day 1 The sacred observance of that day had at one time been the solemn duty of the Jews, frequently pressed on their attention, and enforced by the promise of valuable blessings to those who discharged it, as well as by denunciations of calamity against the disobedient. How, however, to adhere to what was formerly so indispensable, places the person in the very different position of the weak though well-meaning object of forbearance. The fate of the seventh-day Sabbath is in accordance with the apostolical decisions. Silence here is very different in its im­ port from the silence that followed the birth of the institution. There is this difference, with others, that in the latter case the silence was broken, while in the former it remains undisturbed. Amidst the circumstantial details of the early Christian Church, we never after his resurrection find the followers of Jesus assem­ bling for sacred services on the seventh day. Nor was it the manner of the Saviour during his stay for forty days on earth to go as formerly into the synagogue on that day. He honours the meetings of his disciples, but it is no longer on the seventh day. Frequently do the apostles and Christians “ come together,” but 1 Rom. xiv. 5, 6. U 3 0 6 d i v in e a u t h o r it y of t h e s a b b a t h . in several instances the first day of the week is expressly men­ tioned as the set time, while the old day of the Sabbath is never said to be selected for such assemblies. It affects not the truth of our statement, that the apostle Paul repeatedly met with the Jews on that day,1 and “ reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, as his manner was.” This practice did not in his case involve agreement with them in their adherence to the day, or in any of their peculiarities, else he must be supposed to have also fraternized with pagans by preaching in the Areopagus, thereby defeating his avowed purpose not to sanction but to revolutionize the views and customs both of Jews and heathens on/all such occasions. His philanthropy impelled him to go about, like his Master, doing good— doing good as he had opportunity to all. It was in parti­ cular his heart’s desire and prayer for his kinsmen according to the flesh, that they might be saved; and in acting on this feeling he was guided by the Master’s arrangement, to which he thus refers when addressing the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia : “ It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you.” To fulfil these benevolent wishes to the utmost it was obvi-* ously wise and necessary that he should embrace the favourable opportunities of access to his brethren and fellow-men afforded by the scenes and seasons of their wonted and largest concourse. Where it did not compromise truth or duty, he was ready to go farther than this— even to become all things to all men, that he might save some. He could keep the passover, circumcise Timothy, purify himself according to a Jewish rite, call himself a Pharisee, own Ananias as high-priest— such conformity being allowed to a Jew in tenderness to his brethren, that they might not be driven from Christianity, but be gradually won over from an abrogated ritual. And yet in perfect consistency with these concessions, he taught the doctrines that the Mosaic ceremonies were virtually dis­ placed, that it was a denial of the Messiah to attempt their revival as necessary to salvation, and that no man was to judge those Gentiles who refused to submit to them, while practically he would have withstood the apostles to the face, if they had attempted to compel a Titus, or even a recusant Jew, to be circumcised. The subsequent history of the seventh-day Sabbath, while it illustrates 1 Acts ix. 20; xiii. 14-16; xvL 13 ; xvii. 1-3 ; xviii. 4. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 0 7 the wisdom of this policy, confirms our doctrine of its authoritative abolition. Regard for it died out, and another day rose gradually and peacefully to ascendency. For a time the former continued as a subordinate season of worship, but for some fifteen or sixteen centuries it has been, except by the Jews and a very small sect of Christians, altogether disregarded. Is it within the limits of moral possibility that a day which has for so long a period failed to secure the respect and observance of the Christian Church is en­ titled to the claim of Divine authority ? The first day of the week was divinely appointed to be the Christian Sabbath. x Let it be remembered that no new institution required to be enacted. The law prescribing a day of rest after six days of labour had been from the beginning. It was. given in Paradise, impressively recognised in the wilderness of Sin, and solemnly announced from Mount Sinai. Promises of blessing to its friends, and proclamations of calamity to its enemies, were from time to time sounded in the ears of the Jews by the prophets. The primaeval appointment and the fourth commandment remaining unrepealed and irrevocable, with their unchanged and unalterable reasons, the hopes of the ancient church were at the same time pointed to a permanent day of rest and worship with adaptations to the new and more glorious creation. Our Lord had confirmed all these views of the institution, and these hopes of men. He declared that the Sabbath was made for man, and yet that man was not made for the Sabbath. He claimed to be the Lord of the Sabbath. He cleared its law and the other moral precepts from misrepresentation. And while he thus taught the import­ ance and value of a weekly holy day, he rebuked the superstitious regard for a particular day (the design of which had been accom­ plished), and prepared the minds of men for a change. If Israel in the wilderness of Sin, as Henry expresses it, so “ readily took the hint” of a Sabbath there given, much- more might it be sup­ posed that there was abundant light reflected from the glorious resurrection of the Saviour to indicate to his disciples the day which should henceforth be devoted to sacred rest and service. And how inexcusable *are we if his marked selection of a par­ ticular season' for his visits to them, and for sending them tha 308 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. Holy Ghost— their use of the same season in their public cele­ bration of his praise and ordinances, and the name given to it by which he asserted and they admitted his claim to it as his own,— if these facts do not carry ample evidence to our minds that the time referred to, the first day of the week, is by his authority constituted the Sabbath of Christianity. The resurrection of our Lord from the dead was both the indi­ cation and the cause of the transference of the Sabbatic day from the end to the beginning of the week. All the evangelists record the fact that the former event took place on the first day of the week ; but one of them more concisely and directly : “ Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.” It was not by accident that the Redeemer rose from the dead on that day. There are reasons for the times of much less important events. Circum­ stances might have been so arranged as that Jesus should have risen on the seventh day of the week ; but it was not so ordered. That on this day he should lie in the dust of death was a plain token that it was no longer to be “ a delight ”— a day of joyful commemoration. The day of His resurrection was the first day of the Saviour’s rest, and the analogy, to say nothing more, to the Divine procedure in creation required that the day on which He rested from a transcendently more glorious work should be the season of rest and celebration in His kingdom. “ There remaineth therefore a rest,” the keeping of a Sabbath, “ to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” In proof that the day of His own rest was to be the season of rest and prayer to His followers, our Lord met with His disciples on the very day of His resurrection. After favouring individuals of them with His presence and instructions, so that their hearts burned within them while he talked with them by the way, and opened to them the Scriptures, He appeared in the midst of the assembled eleven, and other friends, and said unto them, “ Peace be unto you. Why are ye troubled 1 and why 'do thoughts arise in your hearts 1 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my­ self.” 1 The scene is thus described by another evangelist: l Luke xxiv 36, 38. 39 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 309 “ Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them bis hands and his side. Then were the dis­ ciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, even so ''-send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, ajnd saith unto them, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever ysins ye retain, they are retained.” 1 It is added that “ Thomas was not with them when Jesus came,” and that when informed by the other disciples that they had seen the Lord, he- said, “ Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and my hand into his side, I will not believe.” The establishment of the first day of the week as the Chris­ tian Sabbath still further appears from the time and incidents of our Lord’s second visit to his assembled followers. “ And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Keach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing.” Hete we have plainly a stated day of religious convocation, and that the first day of the week. From another part of the narrative it appears that the disciples had returned to their accustomed manual labours. Their dependence on these labours for their subsistence required that they should attend to their secular calling, the more so that their time had lately been occupied, and their thoughts absorbed by the events that pre­ ceded and attended the crucifixion. They needed, however, as before, a weekly holy day. They could not and would not observe two Sabbaths. The resurrection of their Lord had pre­ scribed the proper day, and this, with His visit, taught them to expect His presence on the first day of the week. Accordingly, “ after eight days again his disciples were within.” And on Hie l John jo . 19-23. 14* 3 1 0 d iv in e a u t h o r it y op t h e s a b b a t h . part our Lord shows his regard to the day. He absents Himself from the disciples for a whole week, and by appearing among them a second time on the first day of the week, and in the scene of public worship, expresses, in the most emphatic manner, his approval of “ the order,” both as respects the time and the engagements of this infant Church. Thus, too, the apostle Paul and his friends tarried at Troas seven days, and yet the first day of the week is the only one mentioned on which the disciples came together to break bread, or on which the apostle preached to them.1 We may presume that it was in like manner to hold public fellowship with the Christians in Tyre, and to preach the gospel, that his sojourn there too was for the same period, as thus related : “ And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days : who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we had accomplished those days, we de­ parted, and went our way.” 2 The sacred observance of the first day of the week extends over a wider space than Jerusalem, and to a later time than that of the events there that have been mentioned. We alluded to the apostle Paul’s conduct at Troas as a case in which other days are allowed to pass unnoticed, and public religious services are postponed till the first day of the week should come round. But his whole pro­ ceedings there, with those of the Church, are justly regarded as very clearly pointing to the first day of the week as the recognised Christian Sabbath. The narrative is as follows : “ And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where wre abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow ; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep : and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he, therefore, was come up again, i A cts xx. 7. * A cts xxi. 4, 5. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 1 1 ^ and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.” 1 Let these facts be adverted to in addition to that already noticed. The Christians at Troas “ came together,” or assembled together, the common phrase for church-meetings in the New Testament. As Peter talked with Cornelius, « he went in, and found many that were come together."2 “ Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you.” 3 « If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, how is it then, brethren ? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” 4 “ Not forsaking the assembling of your­ selves together, as the manner of some is.”5 Further, they came together “ to break bread." That similar language in Acts xxvii. 35 refers to an ordinary meal, appears from the previous advice of the apostle to his fellow-voyagers, who had fasted for fourteen days, to take some food, as it was for their health; from the words, “ Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some m e a t a n d , indeed, from the occasion and the persons so employed. Nor do we doubt that in one or two instances, besides, the reference in such language is to the same thing. But when it is said, ‘ ‘ They continued in the apostles’ doctrine and fellow­ ship, and breaking of bread and prayer,” and when they “ came to­ gether to eat bread,” there can be no question that the observance of the Lord’s Supper is to be understood. It was a meeting for the public celebration of Divine ordinances at which the apostle was present and preached. In a word, this coming together was the ordinary practice of the disciples at Troas. The use of a common expression for Christian worshipping assemblies determines this, while it is to be observed in corroboration of the view, that it is not said that the apostle, as he did in the case of the elders at Ephesus, called the members of the church together, but that V upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to 1 Acts xx. 6-12. 4 1 Cor. xiv. 23,26. 2 A cts x. 27. * H eb. x. 25. * 1 Cor. xi. 17,18. 3 1 2 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow.” If the case now described does not intimate that the Christians at Troas at least were in the custom of keeping holy the first day of the week, and that one of the apostles sanctioned that custom by everything that could express sympathy and fellow­ ship in their meeting and engagements, we know not what the narrative can mean, or what other terms could more clearly convey the facts. The statement is the more conclusive that the inci­ dents are so natural in their character and expression. And what different custom from that at Troas— prevalent as it was at so great a distance from Jerusalem, and well-nigh thirty years after the date of the first Christian assembly— can we suppose to have then prevailed in any other part of the Christian world 1 Let another case embracing a number of churches supply the answer. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians it is thus written: “ Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.”1 The first day of the week is never before mentioned but as the day of the Redeemer’s resurrection, and of religious assemblies and business. These are its only distinctions— the only marks by which it is discriminated from the other days of the week, and by which we are to know its character. We are fully warranted by this history, therefore, to regard it as a sacred day. And here we are made acquainted with the important fact— not the less certain that it required no formal declaration— that it was well known in this its only character by the Corinthian and Galatian churches, if not also by “ all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours,” to whom, with the Christians at Corinth, the epistle is addressed. The writer takes it for granted that all Christians observed it as a holy day. The prescription of benevolent contributions to be made on it— not once or twice, but constantly— is only in harmony with its nature. The seasons of worship were anciently sanctified by such gifts and offerings.2 Our Lord asserted the doing of good as an appropriate duty of the Sabbath-day. The frequent periodi- » 1 Cor. xvi. 1, *. * D en t xvL ICL TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 1 3 cal return of such a day—its facilities for calm reflection and the cultivation of social affections— its bringing the rich and poor together, and equalizing them in the Divine presence— its sacred recollections, services, and hopes— all tend to promote beneficence, to impart principle and regularity to its exercise, and at once to prevent undue pressure on the resources, and to swell the ultimate amount, of liberality. The expression, “ Lord’s day,” in Rev. i. 10, is justly regarded as a decisive testimony to the Christian Sabbath. “ I was in the Spirit,” said the apostle John, “ on the Lord’s day.” This latter expression corresponds with the phraseology of the Old Testament, “ A Sabbath to the Lord,”.“ The Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and still more with the Saviour’s language, “ The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day.”1 The designation of “ Lord ” in the New Testament is usually to be understood of Jesus Christ. We read of the word of Christ— the ministers of Christ— the Lord s table—-the cup of the Lord— the body and blood of the Lord— the Lord’s supper— the Lord’s death— so we read of the Lord’s day. He has appropriated a day to himself ; but as his word, his ministers, his table, his death, are for the benefit of men, to be applied, however, in securing that end, according to his prescription,— so is it with his day. Which day of the week that is, canuot iie reasonably questioned. The apostle refers to it as well known to the churches of Asia. He knew that the first day of the week was the day of the resurrection and visits of his Lord— the day held as sacred by the churches of Troas, Corinth, and Galatia— and by the simple mention of its name as the Lord’s, he, or rather the Spirit of God, has authorized us to conclude that “ the first day of the week” and the “ Lord’s day” are expressions which denote the same day. His testimony, more­ over, proves that the day was not only honoured by the Christian churches and by himself, after the lapse of nearly a century from the time of the Redeemer’s advent, but honoured under the name and sanction of the Lord Jesus Christ. L Kupios teal roC aafifiaTov— rfj KvpiaKrj r]/i.{pq., a different expression from the day of the Lord, 17 rjp^pa K vplov. 3 1 4 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. SEVENTH PROPOSITION.— IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK SHOULD HAVE COME TO BE THUS GENERALLY RECEIVED AND OBSERVED AS A HOLY DAY, o r r a t h e r a s the weekly HOLY d a y , WITHOUT DIVINE a u t h o r it y . And this for the following reasons :— First, The existing prepossessions in favour of the seventh day. It was natural that the Jews should have strong attachments to the whole Mosaic system, which was of Divine appointment, which was that of their fathers, and hallowed in their minds and hearts by its antiquity, glory, and so many tender recollections. How difficult, accordingly, was it for the apostles to believe that all distinctions between Jews and Gentiles had ceased ! The apostles had to bear much with their converted brethren, and to make concessions to their prejudices. And yet, while they were per­ mitted for a time to respect the former distinctions of meats and days, we do not find any evidence in the New Testament that they refused to keep holy the first day of the week. Many of them, at all events, with the apostles at their head, sanctified that day. That this should take place in the case of any, and eventually to the exclusion of regard for the seventh day, in that of almost all, can, we conceive, be accounted for only on the ground that they had sufficient evidence and the clear conviction that the change of day was of God. Second, The regard which Jehovah has to his worship, and his rejection of human interference in its appointment and regula­ tion. Of this, we have ample evidence in the second command­ ment ; in the charges repeatedly given to add nothing to his words ; and in the condemnation and punishment of such persons as Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire on his altar, Jeroboam for de­ vising a religious feast of his own heart, the antichristian power that should “ think to change times and laws,” Ananias and Sapphira, and others. That the apostles and early Christians should of their own accord abandon the seventh day, and institute the first as a day to the Lord, would be to suppose that their Master had permitted them to violate the order of His own house, and to teach for doctrines the commandments of men. t e st im o n y of r e v e l a t io n . 3 1 5 Third, The abundant provision made for regulating all the observances of religion. Jesus had before his ascension “ given commandments through the Holy Ghost unto the apostles,” and commissioned them to “ teach” mankind “ all things whatsoever he had commanded them.” And the words of the apostle Paul to the Thessalonian Christians show the authority under which he acted in his preaching and writings : “ We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”1 From several parts of the New Testament, we learn that in acting and ordering as we have seen one of them did in reference to the first day of the week, they are to be regarded as ruling our conduct, their ordinances and commandments being those of their Master and Lord.2 How was it possible, therefore, for them to appoint the churches to assemble for worship on that day, to encourage the practice, or to induce believers to follow it, if they had not received of the Lord how to teach and act in this most important matter 1 Fourth, The apostolic censure of the observance of days. The Galatians were remonstrated with for this conduct : “ But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage 1 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years., I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” 3 Now it is impossible that inspired men should both condemn the observance of days, and yet observe them themselves, and countenance by their words and deeds the practice, unless the two things were distinct— unless, while other days were set aside, the first day of the week had come into authorized and sacred use. Fifth, The prophetic intimations of a Christian Sabbath. If the consecration of the first day of the week be not the fulfilment of these intimations, they have failed of accomplishment, for that was for centuries the only recognised Sabbath, and still is the Sabbath of nearly the whole Christian Church. 1 1 Thess. iv. 1, 2- 2 Acts xv. 24. 28, 29; Luke x. 16 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 37 ; 1 John iv. 6. » GaL iv. 9-11. 3 1 6 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. \ Sixth, The events and blessings which have attended this day. If the ancient Sabbath was attested by extraordinary occurrences, not less the new. The day of the Redeemer’s resurrection was a day of marvels. It was also a day of blessing, when he announced peace, breathed on His disciples the influences of the Spirit, gave them their commission, and held with them the most condescend­ ing and endeared intercourse. It was on the first day of the week that He removed the doubts of one of their number. It was on the first day of the week, when the Christians were all with one accord in one place, that the Holy Ghost came down, an event so great in itself, and so fraught with good to mankind. On this day the first Christian sermon was preached; thousands were converted, the Church was fully formed, and the Lord’s supper publicly celebrated. It was on the Lord’s day that the apostle John was in the Spirit, heard a great voice as of a trumpet, saw the glorified Saviour in the midst of the churches, and was com­ manded to write the things which he had seen, the things that then were, and the things that should be thereafter. And it has been on the Christian Sabbath ever since that the greatest good has been done to mankind, by that Word and Grace which have covered so many regions of the earth with moral beauty, and pre­ pared so many human beings for heaven, and which shall, in yet more auspicious times, reclaim a revolted world to the service and enjoyment of its Maker. What, then, is wanting to the evidence that the day on which Christians cease from labour, and worship their Divine Saviour, is truly the Sabbath of God, the Lord’s day 1 We have seen the first day of the week to be coseval with the second and more glorious rest of God, sanctified by His example and word, and blessed with His favour, presence, and grace from the beginning till now. If not “ the day which the Lord hath made,” it is surely its morning and meridian too. If not the consummation of “ the rest which remaineth to the people of God,” it is certainly the season of a Sabbatism of which heaven will be, in more per­ fect form, and more unceasing flow, the prolongation for ever. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 317 CHAPTER IV. DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. “ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy w ork; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy Qod: in it thou shalt not, do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” N o t h in g . s more certain than that any portion of time, how­ ever in itself valuable, or capable of being turned to profitable account, is in fact a blessing or a curse according to the purposes to which it is appropriated, and the way in which it is spent. The excesses that have usually attended the festivals of idolatry, and the abuse of holidays by many of our own people, are suffi­ cient confirmation of the remark. To estimate the Sabbatic in­ stitution aright we must view it complexly, not as an abstraction, or even as so much time measured off for any use that men may prefer, but in its concomitants of sacred design, appropriate in­ structions, fitting observance, and the blessing of its Author; and its importance must be understood to consist in the opportunity which at proper intervals it affords not only of rest from secular labour, but of attending to objects and of being acted on by influences which mould into their own elevated and pure character the nature of man, and which without such an arrangement could not be to the same extent, if at all, available. One of the designs of the Sabbath has ever been to afford rest from labour, with a view to the refreshment of the animal .nature, and its invigoration for the work of the six days. The Almighty himself, who is never weary, rested from the six days’ work of creation as a pattern to man. He “ rested and was refreshed.” And He blessed the seventh day, setting it apart as a day of repose to human beings. The first man,-while 3 1 8 DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. untainted by sin, had these things in common with us, that he partook of food, had an employment which demanded the exertion of his bodily energies, and was capable of sleep— all involving the means of maintaining the existence and ministering to the well­ being and pleasure of his physical nature. As these things were compatible with perfection in excellence and happiness, not less so were the rest of night and the rest of the seventh day. It will be admitted that had he not fallen from purity, he, with his race, would have remained under the law of the Sabbath, and enjoyed its blessings. It may be conceded, on the other hand, that had he, like the. angels that sinned, been abandoned by his Maker, his Sabbath would have ceased as irreconcilable with a scene where the inhabitants, “ rest not day or night.” But we are ill qualified to affirm what on certain suppositions might be the procedure of an infinite Being. Man, however, neither persevered in obedi­ ence, nor was hopelessly cast off. As he is the object of for­ bearance and mercy, it does not appear that he is placed beyond the pale of the blessings, or exempted from the obligations of a day of holy and happy rest. There is no intimation that the statute was cancelled, or its benefit withdrawn. • It was given to man as a creature consisting of body as well as soul, and placed in a material world. It is plainly so expressed as to be adapted to all dispensations. If man in innocence needed a weekly rest­ ing-day, no less certainly was the provision required by himself and his posterity after their transition to the state involved in the sentence : “ Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of i t : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.”1 Accordingly, while we find him precluded access to the tree of life, and driven from Eden, nothing is said implying that the Sabbath has been set aside. Cain and such as he went out from the presence of the Lord— that is, voluntarily forsook the scene of sacred privilege, of worship, and of Sabbaths, that, like many of our own day, 1 Gen. iii. 17-19. they might uninterruptedly prosecute their worldly views and pleasures. That such men as Enoch and Noah, who walked with V God, were without the benefit and happiness of the Sabbatic rest, it is on various grounds unreasonable to conceive. If a brief life as ours were insupportable without a weekly day of repose, how impossible for the patriarchs to pass their eight or nine centuries thus ! All their interests of mind and body, time and eternity, demanded such a day. It might be the hard lot of Israel, when borne down by Egyptian bondage, to be deprived partially or wholly of this blessing, but on their arrival in the wilderness of Sin, they are put in full possession of the great charter of human liberty and rights, and begin to enjoy it, none making them afraid. The law, as given from Sinai, sets forth the same design of the institution— rest from labour : “ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor. thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.” 1 The work, of which there must be a cessation, is the work of our calling or business. This must all be done in the six days. On the seventh there must not be any such work. Nothing can be plainer than the ■•prohibition. And the only reason why it could be necessary to illustrate its meaning is that the human mind can pervert the clearest law to its own sinister purposes. Hence it is that we are furnished with Divine comments on this law. The prophet Isaiah informs us, that it is against the law of the Sabbath to do our own ways, or to speak our own words, or to find our own pleasure on that day. The terms of the law imply all this—for its object is rest from all secular work— and how can he fulfil this object who busies himself with action, or word, or thought about such work 1 But, on the other hand, no one could reasonably suppose from this commandment that a sheep was not to be lifted from a pit, that the diseased must not be cured, or that the hungry must not be fed. Actions necessary for the preservation i Exod. xx. 9-11. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 1 9 320 DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 321 Nor are our usual avocations all that ought to be suspended on the Sabbath of God. We are not to do any secular work; we are not to do our own ways, or speak our own words, or find our own pleasure. All that does not involve sacred service must be laid aside, as without this there is not rest. Suppose, for example, the day to be spent in unnecessary thoughts about the business of the world, it would not gain its object of rest to the body, as continual thought about one set of matters is destructive to those material organs which the mind employs, and thus to the whole system. The statesman, equally as the man who is constantly engaged in manual labour, has a short life. Suppose, again, that the day were devoted to recreation, amusement, or convivial in­ dulgence, All observation and experience show that these afford no proper rest to body or mind. Such occupation converts the day into a working-day of the worst description. - He who knows our frame, and all whose ordinances are adapted to its wants and wel­ fare, has prescribed rest frbm our own pleasures, and from our own words (which are in one sense actions, and bring no repose to the spirit) as well as from our own works and ways. To fulfil this purpose of rest, the whole day must be so spent. A Sabbath-day is just as long as another day. We find the Saviour rising early on the firsj; day of the week, and it was not, till the Sabbath’s suit had set that he proceeded to heal the multitudes of sick that were brought to him.1 The hours allowed for repose are, especially in the case of the great majority of mankind, too precious to admit of being alienated from their great purpose. One infraction of the law has its injurious effect. Many smaller deviations constitute a large total of injury. The smaller leads on to the greater. • And admit the principle that one hour of the day of rest may be sacrificed, where shall the admission and the practice stop, short of the abandonment of the whole day ? Here, too, the Author of the Sabbath has evinced his wisdom and his goodness in exactly defining and peremptorily requiring a certain time— a day of rest. So important is the object of this part of the arrangement, the distribution of all titne into that of work and that of rest, that no encroachment must take place on the smaller proportion allotted to the latter object. A portion is 1 Luke iv. 18-41. X of life or the relief of distress do not constitute ordinary secular work. It was to clear the law from such mistaken views of it that our Lord condescended to teach the Jews that works of piety, necessity, and mercy, might be done on the Sabbath, which they themselves knew might be done, and did not object to till they had a purpose to serve. As Jesus was “ Lord of the Sab­ bath,” he knew best its design and requirements, and therefore all these works must have been accordant with both. He re­ peatedly asked whether such actions were not agreeable to the law, and his enemies themselves could not say that they were not. Yet our Lord did not make a practice or labour of healing on the Sabbath ; nor did he authorize his disciples to adopt a custom of plucking and bruising ears of com ; nor command a systematic preparation of appliances for providing against the possible acci­ dent of an animal falling into a pit. It is deeds of mercy to the suffering— deeds essential to the duties of piety— deeds of neces­ sity, incapable of being provided for beforehand or postponed, that he practised and recommended. And when we examine the narratives of the New Testament, we find nothing, after the introduction of the Christian dispensa­ tion, done by Christ, or his apostles, or. the churches, that was contrary to the old commandment of resting one day in seven. ^ We have seen that the institution is permanent, and what would it be without rest 1 And- the testimony of Christian writers after the time of the apostles is most harmonious as to the observance of the Lord’s day as a season of abstinence from labour. As rest, then, has been the law of the Sabbath in all periods of its recognition in Scripture, it is the law now as really as ever. Now as formerly it is a duty to cease from our usual business. The plough must stand— the counting-house and sale-room and workshop”must be shut—-the artisan must suspend the use of his implements— the transactions of buying, selling, and getting gain must be discontinued— the author and scribe must drop their pens__the man of literature and science must lay aside his ordin­ ary reading and investigation's. We have said, all this must be, or ought to be ; but what is thus imperative, is at the same time so reasonable and good as should be felt to be freedom and plear. sure. 3 2 2 d u t ie s of t h e s a b b a t h . rather allowed to be taken from the greater and added to the less. The obligation of labour on the six days is as binding as rest on the seventh, but not in the same measure. Secular days may be applied in certain circumstances otherwise than in the work of our callings, but we have no liberty to throw away any part of the seventh day. One abstraction from ordinary time which is allowed and required, is the portion of it that is necessary to pre­ paration for the day of rest. The children of Israel gathered and prepared the Sabbath’s manna on the preceding day. If we are fully to enjoy our rest, it is necessary, when the time of it arrives, that we be as completely disengaged as possible from disturbing work and cares, and this can be accomplished only by despatching business so that no violent transition is required. But rest for bodily refreshment and invigoration is not the only or chief design of the Sabbatic institute. Another and higher purpose of its rest was, that it might give man facilities for sacred engagements. The law is, “ Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,” and the example of Jehovah is set forth as our pattern. But what was His procedure 1 He rested from one class of works, but not from all working. In like manner we are to rest from the works appropriated to the six days, but not from all activity. This would be the rest of a mere animal, not of a man. It would be an impossibility. The spirit of man, like its Maker, is from its very nature incessantly active. And this very activity is compatible with continued mental vigour and bodily health. Variety of exercise both of body and mind is, under certain con­ ditions and limitations, the repose and refreshment of both. The person who has toiled with his hands during the week finds it rest, not only to cease from such labour, but to exercise his mind on intellectual subjects. The other person who has laboured mentally during the week finds his spirit refreshed by a change of theme. Nor must we forget what is the chief ingredient in the felt rest of both— the change from the unsatisfying and dis­ tracting things of earthly pursuit to intercourse with those tran­ quillizing and gladdening objects of a spiritual and holy heaven, to which man’s nature was originally adapted, and without which it can never be in its proper state of health, order, and happi­ ness. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 323 It is a great truth that the Sabbath was made for man, both for the health of his body and for the good of his mind. But when this oracle was uttered, it was to overthrow the idea that man was made for the Sabbath, not the idea that the Sabbath was made for God. Man himself was made for the Divine ser­ vice and glory, and this is the highest end of the Sabbath as of all things. “ That as the world serves us, we may serve Thee, And both Thy servants be.” 1 The glory of Jehovah required a day on which man should be more fully than on other days engaged in serving Him— on which rent should be paid to the Proprietor, tribute to the Government on which the sons of God should come together and swear fealty to their Master— on which subjects should'wait on their King, and testify their reverence and loyalty— on which the head of the lower creation should offer the collected homage of all his charge to the universal Lord. The Sabbath is “ the Sabbath of the Lord thy God — it is “ the Lord’s day.” It is designed for man’s benefit subordinate^, but it is not man’s day, and therefore not a day for man’s business. It is God’s day, and therefore a day for God’s work. And it is beneficial to man just in the measure in which it is applied to its chief object, the serving and honouring of its Author. The Plod of the Sabbath has prescribed its business. In all ages there has been a service appointed for that day. It would appear that Adam himself had a special work to perform on it. While his thoughts and desires were all holy in the engagements of the six days, it is not inconsistent with his perfect excellence to suppose that his mind required once a week a day of more im­ mediate fellowship with his Maker. The holiness of an angel is that of continual immediate consecration to God. The holiness of an embodied spirit is that of a creature devoted to the service of God in secular occupations for one period of time, and in direct homage for another period of time. Man is finite, and while en­ gaged in the former cannot attend with equal intensity to the latter. And while necessary to his own full happiness, it was i Herbert. 324 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. requisite as a duty to his Maker that innocent man should offer % special weekly homage to his Creator, Benefactor, and King. But passing from this period of man’s history, as to which our information is scanty, and looking to the subsequent accounts of Sab­ bath observance, we find increasing light thrown on this subject. It is a principal part of the duty of the Sabbath to attend the house of God, and engage in its services of praise, prayer, and religious instruction. Early in the history of mankind are Cain and Abel mentioned as bringing their offerings unto the Lord. 'Eiis was “ in process of time,” or at the end of days. As the Sabbath wras a divine ordinance, Abel, a good man, must have observed it, and Cain, who had not yet cast off all religion, must have been, as formerly remarked, too engrossed with the world to have any other day to spare for his worship. In the acceptance of Abel’s offering and in the rejection of Cain’s, we see the Divine approbation of worship that was according to appointment, and the Divine disapprobation of a service that wanted authority. The stated day and place had been attended to by Cain, else there would have been a will-worship which would be condemned, as well as his want of an offering of blood. ' Cain soon after went out from the presence of the Lord— not from God’s presence absolutely, but from his gracious presence— the scene of Sabbaths and worship, and therefore of Divine favour. While men were few, the ser­ vices of the Sabbath were comparatively private and domestic. But in course of time, it is said, “ Then began men to call on the name of the Lord”— that is, more publicly to profess or invoke the name of the Lord. Under the Mosaic economy, there was the public worship of the tabernacle, temple, and synagogue on the Sabbath. And under Christianity, the followers of the Saviour are found meeting together on his day for sacred service. Of the services connected with the house of God under both economies it will be proper here to present* a brief enumeration. Prayer was so much the practice of the ancient church that the house of God is called the house of prayer; and prayer was no ceremonial service which has passed away, for that house of prayer was to be for all people, and the first Christian churches “ continued in prayer.” Praise was another part of the public worship. “ Praise waiteth for thee, 0 God, in Zion.” “ Enter TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 325 his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.” Christ sang a hymn with his disciples after the institution of the Supper. And his first followers “ were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” The reading and preaching of the Word are ordinances common to the Jewish and Christian Churches. In the former, “ the prophets were read every Sabbath-day” (Acts xiii. 27), and “ Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day” (Acts xv. 21). This, like praise and prayer, being a part of the worship of the synagogue, and not of a ceremonial character, is properly continued in the Christian Church; and we find Paul giving charges for the reading of his Epistles in the churches (1 Thess. v. 27 ; Col. iv. 16). Ezra not only read the Scriptures but gave the. sense. When Christ ascended on high He gave pastors and teachers for the edifying of His body, the Church. The apostles preached oil the day of Pentecost, at Troas, and wherever they went, on the Lord’s day, though not exclusively on that day. One of them solemnly charges Timothy to preach the Word, and instructs him to commit this trust to faithful men who should be able to teach others. It is unnecessary to enlarge on an ordinance of which the Scriptures are so full. The offering of their sub­ stance for the service of God is another duty of the assembled worshippers on the Sabbath. ■ By such contributions were the priests, and the poor, and the expenses of religious institutions provided for under the law. The Israelites were not to appear before the Lord empty, and Paul gives instructions to the churches to perform on the first day of the week a similar service. In the Christian Church baptism was to accompany instruction, and the Lord’s Supper was administered on the Lord’s day. All these ordinances supposed not only persons to dispense them, but persons to wait on the dispensation and enjoy its bene­ fits. In ancient times he was pronounced blessed who waited at the posts of Wisdom’s gates. In New Testament times, it is said, “ How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” “ Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is ; but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, 15 3 2 6 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” The same danger was incurred at the very outset of religion. Cain’s going out from the presence of the Lord led not only to his own ruin, but to that universal corruption of manners among his descendants, which, infecting also the descendants of Seth, brought on the flood that swept not merely all save one family from the land of the living ; but millions, there is reason to fear, into the place of woe. And all indifference to the public means of grace and wor­ ship, evinced by total desertion of the sanctuary, or by occasional unnecessary absences, is an act of contempt to the great King of the Church, and proves that apostasy from the truth and from the ways of God has taken one of its most decided steps. The evil is the more criminal and injurious that, besides involving a personal neglect of the Creator and Redeemer, it is an omission of an important testimony to the world on behalf of religion. How becoming and profitable when “ the whole Church comes together !” And there are those who are ever so regular in this matter that nothing but dire necessity prevails to make their seats empty. These are the persons who are likely to profit by the means of grace, and who, as far as this goes, strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of the ministers of religion, rear orderly families, and build up the Church of God. One thing ought to be added as of no small importance. We refer to punctuality in keeping appointments with God, the want of which is surely very like an evidence of indifference to His service. They were men of a different spirit, of whom one of their number could say, “ Now, therefore, are we all here present before God, to hear all things commanded thee of God.” “ S u n d a y s o b s e r v e ; th in k w h en th e b e lls do c h im e, ’T is a n g e ls ’ m usic, th erefore com e n o t l a t e : G o d th en deals b le ssin g s. . . . L e t v a in o r b u sy th o u g h ts h a v e th ere n o p a r t ; B r in g n o t th y p lo u g h , th y p lo ts, th y p le a su re s thither. ChriBt p u r g e d H is temple, so m u st th o u th y heart.”1 1 Herbert’s Temple. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 327 CHAPTER V. d u t i e s o f t h e s a b b a t h . “ 1 was in tile Spirit on the Lord’s day.” . The Sabbath is a day appropriated to the services of domestic piety. “ It is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in all your dwellings.” Family worship is one of its duties. It is not the only day for that interesting and profitable service, for it is not the only day on which families stand in need of, and receive blessings from above; it is not the only day, therefore, on which it is proper and necessary for them to acknowledge their Benefactor. But certainly the Sabbath is a day on which it would be peculiarly inexcusable and criminal to omit such a duty, and on which it ought to be performed with special interest and care. The daily sacrifice under the law was doubled on the seventh day, and in the temple service of Ezekiel was to be tripled.1 The fourth commandment is specially directed to heads of families, requiring them, as such, to keep the day holy. On that day “ it is a good thing to show forth God’s loving-kindness in the morning, and his faithfulness every night.” Reason itself dictates this as the duty of every morning and evening. The heathen had their household gods. The members of families salute their head as they part at night and meet in the morning, and can they retire and assemble without any recognition of Him from whom their being and blessings are all derived? “ The ox knoweth his owner the ass his master’s crib.” “ If I be a father, where is mine honour ? If I be a master, where is my fear ?” A service, so evidently to reason itself a duty and a privilege, required not i Ezek. xlvi. 4, 5._ Hence perhaps the practice, at one time more common, than, we — ' ^ ° w is>in Scotland, of the observance of worship in families three times on 328 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. bo much prescription, as directing and animating examples, pro­ mises to encourage its observance, and warnings to deter us from its omission. And we have all these. We see Job offering sacri­ fices continually for his children ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they journeyed with their families, building altars wherever they w ent; David, after engaging in public worship, returning to bless his household; Esther fasting with her maidens;1 Daniel going into his house, and kneeling down and praying three times a day, as he had done aforetime, which was family prayer, since otherwise it could not be known, as it was, to be his custom ; Cornelius fearing the Lord with his house, and praying in his house or with his household; above all, our Lord praying with his family of disciples, and teaching them how to pray. These are examples, and we have the following promise and warning : “ If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in «heaven.” “ Pour out thy wrath upon the families that call not on thy name.” The worship of a family includes, with prayer, the melody of praise, and the devout reading of a portion of the sacred volume. “ The voice of rejoicing” was heard of old “ in the tabernacles of the righteous.” Paul and Silas did not omit to sing praises to God even in a prison. Christians are thus commanded : “ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” The religious instruction of families is the business of every day. It was no ceremonial rule which enjoined parents to speak of the Divine law to their children day by day, as they rose up and sat down, in the house and by the way— and to train up a child in the way it should go. This is the law of Christ in all ages. “ Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” “ I know him”— Abraham— “ that he will command his children and his household after him.” Solomon bears testimony to his father’s care, and walks in his steps.2 Hezekiah appears to have had three great objects in view for his remaining life on recovery from 1 “ Fasting is always connected with prayer in Scripture.”—M'Crie’s Esther, p. 129. TESTIMONY OF EEVELATION. 3 2 9 sickness— walking humbly, the praise of God in the temple, and making known divine truth to his children. Timothy is congratu­ lated on his unfeigned faith which dwelt first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and on his having from a child known the holy Scriptures— by whom he was taught them it is unneces­ sary to say— “ which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 1 This “ delightful task” cannot be too regularly and diligently performed during the week, and when thus attended to, answers the important end of showing the young that religion is a matter for every day. One day’s instruction, too, would do little comparatively to inform the mind — one day’s training would do little to check inclinations to evil, and to form habits of goodness. But the Lord’s day presents more abundant time, leisure, opportunity, and calm for calling a family together, and ascertaining and promoting their progress in Divine knowledge. The sacreduess of the day and its associations give additional impression to what is taught on it. It is worthy of notice that, after preaching to the multitude, our Lord taught bis disciples in private.2 Conversation on “ the great things of God’s law” is another duty of a family on the Lord’s day. The primitive Christians saluted each other every first day of the week with the words, “ The Lord is risen?” The conversation o f Christ and his disciples related almost entirely to such subjects, even on common days. And on all the Sabbaths and Lord’s days which the Redeemer spent on earth, and the conversation of which is recorded, his dis­ course, except a sentence or two relating to matters of necessity, bore on the things that concerned salvation and eternity, so that men were constrained on one of these days to wonder at “ the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth;” on another to say, “ Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the. kingdom of God and on a third to exclaim, “ Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures 1” And can that be restraint or bondage which the benevolent Saviour has taught us by his example 1 or can we be wrong when we walk in his steps 1 If the mind that was in him be in us, in proportion as it is so will grace, as it was with him, be 3 Prov. iv. 1-4. 1 2 Tim. i 5; iiL 15. 2 Mark iv. 34. 3 3 0 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. poured into our lips, for “ out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” We err in not speaking more on common days of the subjects on which the Saviour delighted to expatiate. How mean are all our secular matters compared with the interests of the soul, the things of God’s law, the great salvation, and a mo­ mentous eternity ! David invited all that feared God to come near and he would tell them— about his wars, his prowess, and wealth 1 — no, but what God had done for his soul. To a commonplace question from a king, Jacob returned a pious and an instructive answer. Moses and Jethro sanctified their meeting by sacrifice. The men in Malachi’s time who “ spake often one to another,” must have spoken of the name on which they “ thought.” Chris* and Moses and Elias spake (some conceive that the day of the transfiguration was the Sabbath-day) of the decease which Jesus ’ should accomplish at Jerusalem. “ A word about Christ,” said Ussher to a friend, “ ere we part.” And if this should be the most delightful, as it is incomparably the most important and glorious subject for every-day converse, how especially should the Sabbath be felt to be its appropriate season! Brainerd says oi those who talked on the Sabbath of secular affairs, “ Oh, I thought what a hell it would be to live with such men to eternity.” And again, in reference to some irreligious characters : “ All their discourse turned on the things of the world, -which was no small exercise to my mind. Oh, what a hell it would be to spend an eternity with such m en! Well might David say, I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved. But adored he God, heaven is a place into which no unclean thing enters.”1 Personal devotion, and attention to the means of spiritual im­ provement in private, form a congenial work of the Lord’s day. The study of God’s word, communing with our own hearts, re­ flection on our past lives, the remembrance of our Creator, the consideration of the work of redemption, the anticipation of death, judgment, and eternity, and the pouring out of the soul in prayer to God, these are duties of every day, and specially of a day that affords so many facilities and reasons for such occupations. Said a good man, “ 0 how I love thy law ! it is my meditation all the day.” To quote a psalm or song for the Sabbath-day : “ It i Edwards’ Workt (1839), voL ii. pp. 334, 337. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 3 1 is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises to thy name, 0 Most High. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the -works of thy hands. 0 Lord, how great are thy works ! and thy thoughts are very deep.” The feelings of good men in anticipating and re­ flecting on the public services of the sanctuary are thus indicated : “ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” “ A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.” “ When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me : for 1 had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day.” The Sabbath, 11 the holy of the Lord,” was to be called “ honourable ” and “ a delight;” and as the command was that persons were on that day not to do their own ways or find their own pleasure, the ways they were to do were God’s ways, and the pleasure they were to find was pleasure in him and in his service. No pretence of personal or family duties can exempt from the obligations of public worship. But neither must public interfere with domestic, nor either with personal duties. If there is one class of engagements that are more than another an evidence to a person himself of his own piety, it is the class of personal duties, secret prayer, meditation, self-examination, and the study of the Scriptures, and of other holy books. And yet it is not the observance of certain practices that shows the character so much as the spirit in which they are performed. How is it with us in this respect 1 Are we seen by Him who seeth in secret retiring from society on the Lord’s day, that we may converse with our spirits, and with their great and gracious Father and Redeemer ? Alas ! if it be not so, it is too certain that we are not “ spiritually minded, which is life and peace, but carnally minded, which is death.” Our attendance in the house of God in this case is a mere self-righteous task, instead of a work of gratitude and love ; a cloak to hide us from ourselves, instead of a gratification and a profitable discipline of the heart. It is in accordance with the nature and designs of the-Sabbath to devote a portion of it to works of benevolence and mercy. And our Lord, who hath left us an example that we should walk 3 3 2 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. in his steps, calls us by his own practice to these labours of love. On the Sabbath he cured a demoniac, and healed Simon’s wife’s mother of a fever. We find him afterwards restoring to strength on that day the man who .had for thirty-eight years been impo­ tent, and commanding him to take up his bed and walk. He next vindicates his disciples against the cavils of persons who had censured them for plucking some ears of corn, and rubbing them in their hands, for the purpose of satisfying their hunger. He further heals a man whose hand was withered, and gives sight to another who had been born blind, having previously prepared clay and applied it to the man’s eyes. He looses from her infir­ mity a woman who had been for eighteen years bowed together by Satan, and cures a man of the dropsy. The apostle Paul, who says, Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ, and who re­ membered that God will have mercy and not sacrifice, abruptly ended his discourse at Troas, that he might employ means for restoring to life the young man, Eutychus, who, overpowered with sleep, had “ fallen down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.” “ Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father” consists greatly in this, “ to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affiiction.” “ As we have opportunity,” we are to “ do good,” temporal and spiritual, “ unto all, especially to them who are of the household of faith.” And what day is more season­ able for “ doing well ” than the day which was appointed to be a blessing to man, provided we, like the Saviour, attend to its claims on us personally, and do not unnecessarily postpone to the Sabbath-day what may and ought to be done before 1 The law of the Sabbath requires more than the work which is limited to the day itself. It takes in all our time. It says, “ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.” Not that we are bound to spend the whole six days in secular work. Com­ mands of moderation, of regard to health, and of daily acts of devotion and beneficence, come in to claim their share of attention, and to regulate a labour which becomes criminal and injurious by excess.1 The importance of redeeming time in general, and of diligence in all our business, is frequently recognised in Scripture. i Affirmativa ligant semper, sed non ad semper, negativa ligant semper «t *4 sem per. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 333 “ Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.” “ Seest thou a man diligent in business 1 he shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean men.” « Even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” And besides many other im­ portant reasons for such conduct, it is necessary to the sanctifica­ tion of the Sabbath. The more diligent and regular we are in the business of the preceding week, the more prepared are we for that day : prepared in having all despatched in such time as not to encroach on sacred hours, and prepared in a free mind, a clear conscience, and in that full, satisfactory exertion of body and spirit in the matters of this life, which stimulates a desire for a holy rest. “ He that is not faithful in his calling, will never care to keep the Sabbath ; and he that keepeth the Sabbath, will be dili­ gent in his calling. Those two are like the two cherubim whose faces looked one towards another.” 1 Nor is this the only preparation necessary for gaining the ob­ ject of the Sabbath. This day fits us for the work of the others ; but the others do not so much fit us for the work of this. An abridgment of the labour of the six days, while necessary to the full enjoyment of the seventh even as a day of rest, is no less essential to the complete attainment of its end as a day of holy service and happiness. To be immersed in worldly cares and pleasures, up to the last hour of Saturday, is incompatible with a right observance of.the first day of the week. In like manner, if the design of the Sabbath is to be fully answered, we must not immediately when it is over plunge into those occupations and pleasures which destroy the impressions, and prevent the benefit of the engagements of the day. Another important duty connected with the Sabbath, and not confined to the day, is our promotion of its observance by others. “ Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- ter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” It is the duty of doing good in this particular respect to our neighbour and brother; it is the duty of “ not suffering sin,” the sin of breaking the fourth commandment, “ upon our neighbour.” 1 Weemea’s Works, vol. ii. p. 223. 15* 3 3 4 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. In concluding this exposition of Sabbatic duties, we must advert briefly to two additional topics. First, It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be safe, obedient, or happy under this law. By the law, including this as well as other precepts, is the knowledge of sin. The apostle says, without excepting the fourth commandment, “ We know that the law is spiritual,” reaching to the thoughts, desires, and aims of the mind equally as to the words and acts of the life. Tried by this one statute, who is not convicted by it of sin in heart and in conduct 1 But the wages of sin is death. “ Cursed is every one that con­ tinued not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” “ Christ Jesus,” however, “ came into the world to save sinners.” “ There is salvation in no other.” “ By him all that believe are justified.” And not until we are united to Him by faith, pardoned and renewed in the spirit of our minds, can we have any pleasure in His law and day; not until we have his grace given to us shall we be disposed to keep any one of the Divine commandments. “ How deeply sensible,” says the Rev. Henry Venn, referring to the Sabbath, “ should we be of our own inability to observe the day according to the will of God.” Faith works by love, and, believing, we rejoice with unspeakable joy ; love to the person and law of Him who died for us and rose again ; joy on account of His atonement, resurrection, and glory, and in the assurance thereby inspired of a blessed immortality. This spirit was attainable and attained in ancient times. Right-hearted men calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honour­ able, received the promise, “ Then shalt thou delight thyself in God ■” and seeing, like Abraham, the day of Christ, the day of His advent and reign, afar off, were glad ; or beholding, like others, the stone which the builders rejected become the head of the cor­ ner, raised these notes of praise, “ This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Second, The Sabbath law is as sacred amidst the liberties of Christianity as it was under a severer economy, and enforced by yet more impressive sanctions. That its circumstances should be different was to be expected. They were not the same after the fall as they had been in Paradise, and they changed again when the seed of Abraham, from being only families and wanderers, had TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 3 5 become a settled and numerous people. The Sabbath could no longer be a type when the things shadowed by it had come. It could no longer be sanctioned by a penalty of temporal death, because Christianity was not a theocracy. It could not offer rewards in the land of Palestine, for it is now part of a system, of which the field is the world. As time had made progress, and the natural had been succeeded by the moral creation— the deliver­ ance from Egypt followed by the redemption from sin— it could now enter into relation to an event greater than even those of all preceding ages, and in adaptation to this event might be trans­ ferred from the seventh to the first day of the week,— to the day when the Redeemer rose from the dead, and entered on his glorious rest. None of these changes could affect the nature of the Sab­ bath as a day of rest— a day of holiness and service to the Lord. As the sun is the same orb that shone on' the world yet unvisited by sin and unblasted by the curse, and now enlightens it as a re­ volted and blighted province of the universe— the same when rising brightly in the east, then enveloped in clouds, and then breaking forth in all its glory— so it is the same Sabbath which has cheered mankind in their conditions of original purity and subsequent depravation, antp which, after varied fortunes, is now risen to its highest earthly honour. The Sabbath, like the sun, has never essentially changed. In ancient times, as really as now, it was a delight, and combined mercy with sanctity. Now, as well as then, it is not a day of idleness, or worldly business, or worldly pleasure. Has the removal of its penalty of death made its profanation less criminal than idolatry and disobedience to parents, which also no- longer incur the forfeiture of the offender’s life ? Is redemption less holy and spiritual a subject of remem­ brance than creation ? Because we are brought nearer to heaven, are we permitted to become more worldly— more occupied with amusements and vanities— less obliged to meditate, pray, and praise on the day which now more than ever borders on and resembles the days of eternity 1 This would be to say that God’s moral law is mutable; that Christ came to relax it, to destroy founda­ tions, to make man less just as to God’s time, less holy in his service, and therefore less happy. What saith the New Testa­ ment ] “ That He would grant unto us, that we, -being de- 336 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. livered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him with­ out fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.” “ Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear : for our God is a consuming fire.” He is a consuming fire— a holy God— and His jealousy burns still round His sanctuary and His day. “ For this cause,” saith the apostle, referring to want of reverent regard to a Divine institu­ tion, “ many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” i “ Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is. For, if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.” TESTIMONY OF BEVELAXION 3 3 7 CHAPTER VI. DIVINE ESTIMATE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. “ And call the Sahbath a delight; the holy of the Lord, honourable.” T h e importance of the Sabbath has been very fully considered as it appears in the light of Reason and Experience, but we have still to view the subject in the clearer light of Revelation. First, A precedency of rank has been accorded to the Sabbatic institution under all the economies of religion. It appears to have been the earliest provision of a sacred kind made for the benefit of our first progenitors, preceding, even, the establishment of the cove­ nant of life. It was, as Jeremy Taylor observes, the first point of religion that was settled after Israel came out of Egypt. It had a place assigned it, not only in the Decalogue, and thus above all political and ceremonial regulations, but in the first table of the law, which— summed up in love to God, “ the first and great commandment ”— lies at the foundation of all morality, and trans­ gressions of which are more aggravated as subversive of all justice, order, and good in the universe ; and as involving a more imme­ diate aggression on the authority and person of the Lawgiver1— a ground on which idolatry and the desecration of sacred time are alike forbidden. Elevated thus highly by its place in the first table, the fourth commandment is honourable even as compared with the preceding three, not merely as connecting them with j those of the second table, but as “ the only commandment,” to use the words of Dr. Winter Hamilton, “ that affirmatively and directly requires duty to God.” And as the original institution was contemporaneous with the completion of creation, so when the 1 1 Sam. ii. 25. Y 3 3 8 IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. Saviour rose from the grave He by this act at once proved the per­ fection of the atonement, and reared its monument in a day con­ secrated to His service. Second, No institution has been more frequently promulgated than the Sabbath. It is announced at the Creation. It is again stamped with the Divine authority in the sight of assembled Israel in the wilderness of Sin. In a few weeks thereafter— and that was certainly of no small moment which must so soon be repeated— we hear it proclaimed in thunder from Sinai. And once more does it come forth from the excellent glory with altered day and name, and with superadded purpose and honour, but in all its substantial import, M’hen Christ rests after a consummated redemption. This frequency of formal intimation has never been accorded to any other statute of ancient or modern times. Was it thus cared for and protected as being a chief bulwark of reli­ gion, and yet a law the importance of which was not so obvious to the human mind, or the sacredness of which was peculiarly repugnant to the human heart 1 Whatever may be the reason, certain it is that its Author has taken special care to provide the means of securing to Himself the glory of His own day, and to man its blessings. Third, The terms of legislation in reference to the institution have been unusually copious and explicit. All the commandments are expressed with a Divine comprehensiveness and perspicuity. But the fourth has some remarkable peculiarities. It is the largest and fullest of them all. It alone is prefaced by a solemn memento. Unlike the rest, it is presented in two forms, first positively, stating what we are to do, and then negatively, stating what we are not to do. Unlike all but the tenth, it is minute in the specification of the persons whom it concerns. The other precepts are not so enforced— most of them containing no argu­ ments, and none of them so many as the fourth. No law could be stated more unequivocally, as none has been more frequently set forth. For all this particularity there was occasion. There is nothing that man feels to be a greater restraint on his sinful inclinations than a day devoted to God. There is nothing which he is more ready to abuse to the purposes of a lawless liberty under the pretence of its grant of a right to rest. There is nothing TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 3 9 which has been more assailed and mutilated than the law of the Sabbath. And there is nothing so surely detrimental to a true religion as the success of its enemies in secularizing throughout a country, and wresting from , men the day which has been pro­ vided as a principal means of guarding Divine truth, and advanc­ ing human piety. Fourth, The Sabbath has been honoured by its relation to pecu­ liarly important facts. The Creation was a great event— great in itself as the work of Divine wisdom, goodness, and power— and great as the theatre of other works no less wondrous. In honour of the Deity as the Author of this mighty work was the day of sacred rest appointed. Had man not sinned, Creation would have been, it is probable, the chief means of declaring the glory of the Divinity. In his fallen state, it does teach him those doctrines of the Divine existence and attributes which lie at the foundation of all religion. How important the institution which was designed and fitted to be to innocent man a perpetual remembrancer of his Maker, especially as a regularly recurring season for the more immediate contemplation of His perfections, and which is equally suited, as, from the want of all evidence of the revoking of the destination, it is obviously intended to answer the same purpose to man guilty and depraved ! In the present condition of human beings, who dislike to “ retain God in their knowledge,” a weekly festival with religious instruction, is, still more than it was in their first estate, needed by them, that the Creator may not be forgotten in these His own dominions, and by us His own offspring. There is another event of extensive and abiding importance__ an event greater than the Creation, as it reveals more of the character of the Supreme Being, and secures a higher and more enduring, even an eternal happiness to man. Compared with Redemption, all other works are unworthy to “ come into mind ” finked" C°mpleted W01'k the Lord’s day has been indissolubly Creation and Redemption are facts wherein Jehovah is seen in His full glory, and which it is most of all things for man’s good to know and remember. What a sacred and benign lustre is thrown over the Sabbath by its association with such facts ! how 3 4 0 IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. important the institution which has their memory intrusted to its keeping ! With what reverence and interest should that day be regarded which brings us so immediately into the presence of the Almighty and the All-merciful! Fifth, The manner in which the institution has been appointed and at different times proclaimed, is no less significant of its peculiar importance. The solemnities of Sinai did not signalize the law of the Sabbath more than the other nine commandments, but it says not a little on its behalf that it partook equally with the others of the awful and impressive testimonies which that occasion supplied to the glory of the moral law. But there were demonstrations of the sacred excellence of the institution which belonged exclusively to itself. What an august occasion for the expression of the Divine will when man had just come into being, and when his ears were saluted with the voice of his Maker calling him to remember his Creator on the first day of his youth, while the morning stars were singing together, and all the sons of God were shouting for joy ! How stupendous the work which had just been finished ! How noble the argument— Jehovah is resting from His work, and invites thee by His example to enter into His Divine rest! Then, looking forward over a space of two thousand and five hundred years, we see the Author of the Sabbath not only overcoming tire evil of mistrustful men by giving them food from heaven, but glorifying His own day by miraculous works. Nor was this the wonder of a day. For forty years the uncor­ rupted manna gathered on the sixth day for the following day s use, and the preservation of the portion laid up beside the ark, gave special attestation and honour to the Sabbatic institution. Let us only add, that the manner in which the Lord’s day was intro­ duced, though more in accordance with a kingdom that “ cometh not with observation,” had a moral sublimity more truly august and impressive than had been the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. The Lord of glory, after condescending to suffer and die for men (what infinite love was this !) stepped from the tomb, and sanctified the day of His resurrection to be the Sabbath of Chris­ tianity, and a monument of His finished redemption. He too, as God did, rested from His work— appropriated the day as His own— and taught us by His example, and by His appearances in TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 4 1 the midst of His disciples, that there still remained a rest to the people of God. Sixth, The means which the Author of the Sabbath still more directly employs to maintain its authority and to enforce its ob­ servance, demonstrate its eminent sanctity and value. The frequency and solemnity of His commands on the subject show how momentous the keeping of the day of holy rest was in the view of God. He had scarcely uttered His charge by Moses to Israel, that “ no man was to go out of his place on the seventh day,” when He pronounces in tones of thunder the law, “ Re­ member the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy,” which is soon followed up by large and repeated commands to the same effect: “ Yerily my Sabbaths ye shall keep— ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you— ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary— keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.” He remonstrates and complains, as well as enjoins. “ How long refuse ye,” were his words to Moses at the descent of the manna, “ to keep my commandments and my laws 1” “ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them,” were the words of Nehemiah from God, “ What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day ? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city 1 yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sab­ bath.” “ Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against me— they polluted my Sabbaths.” He appeals to the dignity, reasonableness, and value of the in­ stitution. It is the holy Sabbath— a' Sabbath to thq Lord— a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable— the Sabbath of- the Lord thy God— the Lord’s day. It is one day in seven. “ See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” “ Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them— but my Sabbaths they greatly polluted.” The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. He condescends to vindicate and interpret His law. He does so by the prophets. He does so especially by Jesus Christ. What clearer evidence could have been given of the Divine regard for 3 4 2 IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. the institution than the means employed to free it from the addi­ tions and corruptions by which man had disfigured and perverted the simple and gracious ordinance of heaven 1 “ We may collect,” says Howe, “ there is an awful regard due to the Sabbath-day. When our Lord justifies the cure now wrought on their Sabbath only on this account, that it was an act of mercy toward a daughter of Abraham ; by the exception of such a case he strengthens the general rule, and intimates so holy a day should not, upon light occasions, be otherwise employed than for the proper end of its appointment. Though our day be not the same, the business of it, in great part, is.” 1 He warns by words of threatening and acts of retribution. The law which assigned death as the punishment of Sabbath-breaking was obligatory only during the time and within the local limits of the theocracy. Nor was this the only offence which incurred among the Jews the awful penalty. ' Adultery, murder, and stub­ born disobedience to parents were capital crimes. The transgres­ sion even of certain ceremonial requirements involved the forfeiture of life. But, while this punishment of the Sabbath-breaker teaches to all ages and places the lesson that his sin was no trifle, there is something in the enactment of the law in the matter, and in the only recorded instance of its execution, which serves to impress our minds with the conviction that a peculiar enormity attached to the infraction, of the fourth commandment. “ Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall be put to death ; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord, whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath- day, he shall surely be put to death.”2 “ Andwhile the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day. And they that found him gather­ ing sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man .shall be surely put to death : all the congrega­ tion shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the l On Luke xiii. 16. Works, Loud. (1S36), p. 1010. a Ex. xxxi. 14,15. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 4 3 congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died ; as the Lord commanded Moses.” 1 Whether similar cases occurred we are not informed. But death under the direction of the judicial law was not the only way in which the punishment of offences against the Sabbath was threatened and visited. That law contemplated, with the remarkable exception of the case of suspected conjugal infidelity, only overt acts. Israel, however, were under other laws, which took cognizance of the heart, and of many actions which, though not amenable to the civil jurisdiction, subjected offenders to the Divine displeasure, expressed in various forms of calamity. And no sin appears to have called forth more comminations and judgments than that of contemning sacred institutions, particularly the Sabbath. Jehovah is represented as lifting up his hand to that people in the wil­ derness, that he would not bring them into the land which he had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they despised his judgments, and walked not in his statutes, but polluted his Sabbaths, for their hearts went after their idols. This determination was fulfilled in the case of many, but his eye spared others, so that he did not make an end of them in the wilderness. When, after renewing his covenant with them, and charging them to hallow his Sabbaths, they proved disobedient, and polluted his Sabbaths, he said he would pour out his fury upon them to accomplish his anger against them in the wilderness ; but withdrew his hand, and wrought for his name’s sake that it should not be dishonoured in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight he had brought them forth. And again, he lifted up his hand in the wilderness, that he would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries, because they had not executed his judgments, but had despised his statutes, and polluted his Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. This last threatening, which had been uttered in the days of Moses, had begun to be carried into effect when the prophet Ezekiel thus recorded it. To these attestations of the solemn importance of the Sabbath, let us add another from the Old Tes­ tament Scriptures. It appears, from a passage in the prophecies of Jeremiah, that the welfare and even the continued existence of 1 Numb. xv. 32-36. 3 4 4 IMPORTANCE OP TEE SABBATH. the Jewish State were suspended on the observance by the people of that institution; for he declares, that if they hallowed it, and did no work therein, the nation should in the highest measure prosper, and the city remain for ever, but that if they would not hearken unto God to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of,Jerusalem on the Sabbath- day, then should he kindle a fire in the gates thereof, which should devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and not be quenched. Although we had no evidence of the fulfilment of this denunciation, its ut­ terance might suffice to convince us that the institution must have been precious in God’s sight, which was so fenced round against its foes by the terrors of devouring fire and of national ruin. But the words of the prophet were verified in the destruction of Jeru­ salem by the Romans, with fire, and on the Sabbath-day. Nor are equally solemn proofs of the Divine respect for holy seasons and appointments wanting under Christianity. This be- nignest form of true religion was introduced with “just judgments on wicked men.” As it advanced, the abuse of a Divine insti­ tution was followed by sickness and death. It was to avowed Christians that the warning was addressed : “ Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some i s ; but exhorting one another ; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indig­ nation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace 1 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” 1 These dread words proclaim that Christianity has its penalties no less than had Judaism— penalties the more fatal that they are spiritual and lasting; that “ our God is a consuming fire,” who will be sanctified in “ them that come nigh” him, as certainly as when for offering strange fire the sons of Aaron “ died before the 1 Heb. x. 25-31. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 4 6 Lord,” or when he swore by hi3 excellency that he would not forget their works who in the time of Amos wearied of his Sab­ bath, but would send them a famine of his word, with other cala­ mities ; and that he is as resolved to assert the claims of his forsaken institutions and assemblies now as when the uncircum­ cised were doomed to excision from their people. It is extremely wicked for poor mortals to judge their fellow-men, to deal out disaster according to their own views and passions, and not to unite charity and mercy towards others with severity against their own misdeeds. But it would, on the other hand, be a base betrayal of truth, and a cowardly shrinking from duty, to evade the perception and avowal that peculiar retributions are in our own day awarded to the profaners of the Sabbath. It must be so, unless God has ceased to rule the world, and to maintain the authority of his law. It is so, for although there is no death by the laws of nations to such men, they themselves, in untold num­ bers, have confessed that their sin has found them out, and brought them to this doom. It is so, for although no voice from heaven says to particular classes or individuals as to the Jews, « I will visit you with this or that penalty for contempt of-my day or, after the infliction, “ This was owing to your profanation of the Sab­ bath, yet the principles of the Divine government remain the same— the Divine menaces against the offence are still on record — the same causes produce their wonted effects— the practice abounds, and two classes of facts are manifest— the one, calamit­ ous events which point as with the finger to their guilty cause • the other, those natural consequences of the sin— the increased irreligion, the immorality, the abbreviated life, and other evils which it requires a considerable portion of this volume to present even in an imperfect outline, and which have there been proved to prevail to a large extent in the measure of a personal, domestic, and national disregard for the Sabbatic institution. And let it not be presumed, because no injury seems to attend such a course in the present state, that the Divine word, and the evidence for the importance of the institution, have in any degree failed. For there is reserved a perfect retribution to individuals in a future world, and the words lately cited direct our thoughts to a con­ summation of punishment there, which completes the proof from 846 IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. the penal sanctions of the Sabbath, that no “ common thing” is trampled upon, and no venial fault committed, when men forsake the assembling of themselves together on the day, and for the worship, of the Almighty. But the Sabbath is recommended by promises of good as well as guarded by penalties. Its Author, at its original institution, pronounced on it a benediction which He has never recalled, but again and again renewed. This benediction was repeated in the most impressive manner from Sinai. And prophets were com­ missioned to unfold the boon. “ Thus saith the Lord,” by Isaiah, “ Keep ye judgment, and do justice : for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on i t ; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people : neither let the eunuch say, Behold I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters : I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer : their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar ; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” 1 The same prophet is directed to de­ scribe the duties of the Sabbath, and the happiness and honour which the performance of them insures, in these remarkable terms : “ If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a de­ light, the holy of the Lord, honourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speak­ ing thine own words : Then shalt thou delight thyself in the i Isaiah Ivi 1-7. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 347 Lord; and I will cause thee to riae upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” 1 Similar is the testimony of the prophet Jeremiah: “ And it shall come to pass, if ye dili­ gently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no work therein ; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain for ever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat­ offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the Lord.”2 And judging from such promises, made to individuals and to classes— to Gentiles and Jews— the following, character of the most glorious era in the history of this earth is to be viewed as not the least of the causes of that glory : “ And it shall come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”3 Finally, The Sabbath is distinguished by its antiquity and duration. It is nearly as old as the creation. On the sixth day of time that work was completed, and its Author stamped the following day with his signature,- in perpetual memory of Himself as the Being by whose underived wisdom the vast undertaking was de­ vised— by whose uncaused power it was achieved. Adam awoke from his first sleep to behold the light of the earliest Sabbath-day. Almost contemporaneous with the appointment of marriage, it might be said of the corrupters of the one as it was to the per- verters of the other, “ From the beginning it was not so.” Age, indeed, does not consecrate evil or magnify a trifle, but it imparts interest to what is innocent, and venerableness to what is great and good. We are commanded to ask for the old paths; and where shall we find older paths than the law of the Sabbath, and the way of salvation through the seed of the woman 1 The hoary 1 Isaiah Iviii. 13,14. t Jer. xvii. 24-26. s jsaiah lx'vi. 23. 3 4 8 IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. head is a crown of glory when found in the way o f righteousness. Our Magna Charta is an ancient guarantee of civil rights, but neither in antiquity, nor in its own nature and extent, can it for a moment vie with the world-old and world-wide charter of a free seventh day, which the Creator hath given to the human race for all time. How many changes and catastrophes has it survived ! Kingdoms have, in multiplied instances, risen and fallen. Systems of opinion on all subjects have succeeded each other in constant succession. The institutions of man have perished one after another. Religious ordinances themselves have fulfilled their temporary destinies and disappeared. But the Sabbath, like the perpetual hills, has outlasted the patriarchal altars, witnessed the decay of all other sacred monuments, survived the tabernacle, temples, and sacrifices of a gorgeous ritual, and, after the various fortunes of eighteen Christian centuries, is still as full of vitality and vigour as at any former period of its history. And we have reason to believe that, like the ordinances of heaven, it will live through all the ages of time. Nor will it end when the sun has ceased to run its course. Then, indeed, it will no more bless the men who shall be found to have preferred death to life— a lawless freedom to a holy rest. But there will “ remain a rest to the people of God,” and for them the Sabbath will begin a brighter career, as the one day— the unchanging holy day of eternity. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 4 9 CHAPTER VII. THE SABBATISM OF HEAVEN. “ There rcmaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” I n the preceding part of this volume, the Sabbath has been considered as a law and ordinance belonging to the present state. It is solely in this point of view that writers for the most part re­ gard it. The Sabbatism of a future world, however, is a doctrine which is not only favoured by the analogy of the Divine procedure hitherto, but revealed in the Holy Scriptures. First, we have the doctrine announced in the words of our motto, which occur in Heb. iv. 9. In this chapter, according to the learned and profound Owen, three periods, with three great works, having each its Divine rest and its memorial day for men, are mentioned. The first is the time when the Almighty finished His work of creation, rested and was refreshed, and sanctified and blessed the seventh day. The second is the period when He re­ deemed the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Of this work it is said : “ I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waters roared : the Lord of Hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people” (Isa. li. 15, 16). On that occasion, too, Jehovah rested, saying, “ This is my rest, and here will I dwell,” and though some of those who were invited to enter into His rest, fell short of it and died in the wilderness, others participated in the Divine blessing, enjoying the inheritance of the promised land. The day selected for the celebration of the rest of God in this case was the old seventh day. “ The time for the change of the day was not yet come, for this work was but preparatory for a greater.” The third period 16 3 5 0 THE SABBATH IN HEAVEN. was coincident with the accomplishment by Jesus Christ of human redemption. The work itself, the rest of the Saviour, and the consequent resting-day for men, are all expressed in these words : “ There remaineth therefore a rest”— the keeping of a Sabbath— “ to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” The rest into which the Redeemer entered was not His lying in the grave, for this was part of his humiliation and subjection to the curse of the law, but His rising from the dead on the third day, for then He began to rest from His labours, and to receive the re­ ward of His work— and that third day— the first day of the wTeek — fitly became the day of celebration in His kingdom. But this is the kingdom of heaven— the kingdom not only of grace, but of glory— an everlasting kingdom. And “ there remaineth there­ fore a rest to the people of God”— a Sabbatism suited not only to the church on earth, but to the church in heaven. Accordingly, second, the happiness of a future state, as unfolded in the Word of God, includes the great elements of a Sabbath day. Rest is one of these elements. At death the spirits of the just “ rest from their labours”— they “ enter into peace.” But the rest of a spirit can neither on earth nor in heaven be in­ action. It is, in the case of a holy being, rest, as opposed not to activity, but to hurry, distraction, toil, uneasiness. There is accordingly service— the immediate service of God— as well as rest. “ His servants shall serve him.” They “ rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” There is the commemoration of the same works as on earth. Creation is celebrated. “ The four-and-twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.” Redemption is eminently the subject of remembrance and praise. “ The four living creatures and four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they TESTIMONY OE REVELATION. 3 5 1 sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests : and we shall reign on the earth.” One great end of a day of rest is to afford the means of public worship. Such is the worship which everywhere pervades the record of celestial occu­ pations. The leisure of the weekly holy day was designed also to enable us to receive religious instruction, and to engage in sacred studies. And in another wrnrld there appears to be re­ quired the opportunity of a perpetual Sabbath for the same ob­ ject. It seems impossible to bring a created being to a state of perfection in knowledge at which it could be said that further he could not advance. It seems necessary to the very nature of a rational creature to grow, whether it be in good or in evil. God alone is unchangeably and absolutely perfect in intelligence. The angels, who have ever beheld the face of God, are still learners. It was the one desire of a good man to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, that he might behold His beauty and inquire in His temple. His confident hope was thus ex­ pressed,' “ As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness : 1 shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” And one object of the Saviour’s desire that His followers might be with Him in heaven was, that they might behold His glory. If when they behold in a glass the glory of the Lord they are changed into His image from glory to glory, much more when they see no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face. His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face. The performance of benevolent acts is peculiarly appropriate to the day of rest, and is even enjoined in Scripture (1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2). The law of earth, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” is also the law of heaven. Charity or love is greater than either faith or hope, and never faileth. And in the heavenly state it must express itself, though not in reproof, or in words of condolence, or in acts of relief, yet in the benignant eye, in the affectionate voice, in the animating song, in the communication of intelligence, in offices of kindness and friendship. The penitence of a sinner, the conversion of the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms of Christ, the casting 3 5 2 THE SABBATH IN HEAVEN. out of the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, and the destruction of Babylon, are represented in the sacred volume as spreading joy and inspiring songs of praise among the inhabitants of heaven. The seraphim do not indulge solitary and selfish joys, but cry one to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His glory. And in the same spirit the nations of them that are saved rejoice in a common salvation, and above all things, rejoice in the highness of their Lord and Saviour. The Sabbath-day on earth is a time consecrated entirely to God, and such, as appears from words already cited, is the Sabbath of heaven. And as there is one service in particular in which Christians feel themselves on the Lord’s day to be brought to the gate of heaven, we find that if one thing more than another is the distinction of the engage­ ments and happiness of eternity, it is the celebration of the de­ cease which was accomplished at Jerusalem. Third, the Sabbath remaining substantially unchanged, at­ tains its highest honours in the world above. There it must in all time have been known and prized as an instrument of good on earth, but its value in this aspect will then only be fully seen when its services, as a means of bringing many sons to glory, have been completed. When a building has been finished, the scaffold­ ing is taken down and forgotten. It is not so when the cope- stone is laid on the house of God. The great means of its erec­ tion was the obedience unto death of Jesus Christ; and this, we find, divides the interest and the praise of heaven with the agency of Him who sitteth upon the throne (Rev. vii. 10). Even crea­ tures themselves, although only serviceable as they have re­ ceived grace and blessing from the Divine Saviour, are acknow­ ledged and rewarded as the instruments of turning many to righteousness. And the Sabbath, too, receives an honour which is not conferred on merely positive institutions, inasmuch as it is re­ ceived into the economy of heaven— the service of eternity. The Sabbatic good to which Dr. Croly in the following sentence refers, may be expected to be in a large measure attained in a golden age awaiting the earth, but its perfect realization is reserved for the new heavens and the new earth : “ As the full possession of providential blessings is given only to the completeness of TESTIMONY OE REVELATION. 3 5 3 human obedience, it is probable that neither the natural results nor the full knowledge of the Sabbath have ever yet been en­ joyed by the fallen race of mankind.” 1 In the glorious rest of the Saviour, the people of God partici­ pate when they sit down with Him on his throne. Let these words suffice to describe their condition : “ God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away. There shall be no more curse. There shall be no night there \ and they need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth them ligh t: sftid they shall reign for ever and ever ” (Rev. xxi. 4 ; xxii. 3, 5). Their worship is perfect. They are without fault. “ These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (Rev. vii. 14, 15). It has been said that praise on earth is the chief emblem of the occupations of eternity. “ All that we know o’ the saints above, Is that they sing and that they love.” Reading, preaching, prayer in some of its parts, and certain other forms of devotion, are superseded, but praise remains— that dis­ interested, delightful employment of the angels, and of every man who has had the enmity and selfishness of his heart thawed by the Divine grace and love, and been formed in this way to show forth God’s praise. “ The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” The following incident gives some idea of what praise should be :— A prayer-meeting in the south of Scotland was scattered by perse­ cution, which consigned some to the horrors of Dunnottar Castle, and banished others to foreign parts. At the Revolution, the survivors re assembled for prayer, and began the devotions of the evening with the Psalm— “ Had not the Lord been on our side, May Israel now say; • Had not the Lord been on our side, When men rose us to slay; l D ivine Origin and Obligation o f {fa Sabbath, p. 3. Z 3 5 4 THE SABBATH IN HEAVEN. They had us swallowed quick, when as Their wrath ’gainst us did flame: Waters had covered us, our soul Had sunk beneath the stream.” A person who was present on that occasion, a relation of my informant, declared, “ Such singing I never heard before, and expect never to hear again till I get to heaven.” Praise must have been a chief part of the devotion of Paradise, and would, we may conceive, have been the employment of unfallen men for ever. But how superior the praises of a countless host to those of Eden, and how has redemption, with its superadded themes, its new songs, and, we may add,- the higher tone of sentiment wliicn it has inspired, improved the melody! The account of the univer­ sal anthem (Rev. v. 9-14) is unspeakably sublime ; but for a still nobler swell of praise we must look forward to the day of complete redemption. Who would not desire to hear that music 1 rather— for to hear it from hell would but add to our misery— who would not wish to “ bear some humble part in that immortal song 1 ” Heaven’s commemoration of great events is all that God would have it to be. Here material objects are employed and are necessary to conduct our thoughts and feelings to the Unseen, and to preserve the remembrance of redemption. Bread and wine must be used. And these emblems are few, simple, and expressive. But there is no need of such things in a spiritual temple, where God is seen face to face, where stands “ a Lamb as it had been slain,” and where the perfected understanding, memory, and heart are delightfully and exclusively devoted to the highest subjects. The glass is unnecessary when we clearly see the object— the streams are superseded when we are at the fountain. How undis­ tracted, spiritual, and pure must be the devotions and celebrations of heaven, when perfect minds will be directly employed on Divine and eternal things! The investigation of truth is not peculiar to the final condition of “ the people of God,” but it is then conducted under the best auspices. The first man had the garden to keep and dress, and was thus prevented from devoting himself entirely to the contem­ plation of spiritual objects. He had not God as the object of direct vision, or Christ as the manifestation of the Divine TESTIMONY OP REVELATION. 3 5 5 perfections to behold, or the whole universe to study, or the im­ mediate teaching of Him who is the Light of the world. The re­ deemed, again, had on earth many disadvantages for inquiry, in an encumbering body, which required so much attention, and by its frailty and cares interrupted the exercises of the mind— in evil propensities, which diverted the spirit from its proper engagements, and darkened its views— in the many surrounding things which often unprofitably occupied the time— and in a thousand avocations which exhausted the strength without having any connexion with the improvement of the intellectual faculties. The spirits of the just themselves are inferior in this matter to those who after the resurrection inhabit the heavenly world, in not having the glori­ fied organs of sense by which to communicate with their appro­ priate objects, and in having neither the completed mystery of God, nor the full assembly of holy beings to call forth and sustain their noblest energies. From all this we may see how abundant are the advantages which men who are delivered in soul and body from all evil must have for prosecuting the search of truth in the eternal world. And how superior their pursuits to all others, even to many that were laudable and necessary in this life ! They themselves were in many instances, through their connexion with the earth, and from an impaired bodily constitution, subjected to employments which are not congenial to the high faculties and sanctified desires of the mind. Much of their time and strength was expended on the body, on the acquisition of food and raiment, health and perishing objects— engagements which, though neces­ sary, and when properly attended to profitable to men, and honouring to God, are yet peculiar to a state of things induced by sin, and are not in themselves worthy of the origin and capacities of a spiritual and immortal being. But now they rest from all such labours, and are entirely occupied with services suited to their powers and characters— services such as angels engage in, and tending to bring them near to God, as well as to assimilate their nature to His. The pursuits of the philosopher are despised by the ignorant, and by the men who place all value in houses and lands, trade and money. But as mind is more excellent than matter, and as it is from the former that all other things receive direction, improvement, and importance, so are the labours of the 3 5 6 THE SABBATH IN HEAVEN. philosopher worthy and useful above those of the merchant, hus­ bandman, and mechanic. Still higher in the scale are the studies and aims of the man of God. So thought David when he longed to appear before God, preferred a day in His courts to a thousand, and would have rejoiced, as we have already remarked, to spend all the days of his life in the house of God, beholding His beauty and inquiring in His temple. So judged the apostle Paul, who counted everything but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord. So decided the Son of God when He showed His preference of Mary’s devout attention to His instruc­ tions above Martha’s bustling care about His personal comfort, and pronounced the object of Mary’s choice to be the good part— the one thing needful. And from the brief but pregnant notices furnished in the Scriptures respecting the studies and tastes of holy, happy angels, and glorified men, we find their spirit to be in unison with that of David, that of Paul, and that of their Lord — in other words, that they have none in heaven but God, that there is none upon earth that they desire beside Him, that He is their portion for ever, and that whether they study, converse, or sing, or whatsoever they do, they do all to His glory. The holiness and benevolence of heaven are of the most exalted order. The Sabbath is “ the holy of the Lord”— a day which is to be kept holy— on which we are required to honour Him, not doing our own ways, or finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words, a day for the exercise of loving-kindness, and to be called a delight. In heaven, the day is sacredly observed by the inhabitants. They are in the fear of the Lord all the day long. How deep were their reverence of Him and their humility even on earth — Isaiah and Job for example! But how much more purely and powerfully, though without any consciousness of vileness, do these feelings operate in the hearts ef the redeemed before the thr >n *, who know so much of the sanctity and majesty of God ! They fall down before Him ! They cast their crowns before the throne. Then what ardent love and fervent gratitude ! When the day of judgment has fully disclosed the destinies of mankind, and heaven has received the whole company of the blessed ; when the work of redemption in all its parts is finished, Christ will be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe. To sit down TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 3 5 7 at the feast of eternity, a feast prepared from the foundation of the world, and prepared at such an expense— a feast enjoyed in security, while many are “ without,” exposed to all the fury ot the tempest of Divine indignation— how glowing must be their love and gratitude to the Father who chose them, to the Son who bought them, to the Spirit who qualified them for these everlast­ ing joys! Their enlarged knowledge and deepened humility have increased their sense of obligation, and their growing intelligence and lowliness of mind will increase it for ever. Every recollec­ tion of sin, every thought of the misery of the lost, every new view of the greatness and purity and goodness of God their Saviour will impart additional warmth to the ardour of their love and to the fervour of their thankfulness. It is God who is the judge of what is the most honourable employment for His rational creatures, apd it is to the highest and last state of His servants as appointed and made known by Him that we 9,re to look for a model. It is heaven that should give law to earth, not earth to heaven. “ Thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven,” is a petition which Christ has taught us to offer at the throne of grace. The exercises of pa­ tience, of contrition, of well-doing to the ignorant, the poor, the afflicted, the dying, noble as they are on earth, are superseded in heaven, but this impairs not the glory of heaven’s occupations. It will be better even here when one shall not need to say to his neighbour, Know the Lord. The celebration of victory is better than the battle. Who but a fool would wish the times of tempta­ tion, ignorance, and conquest to return 1 Who but a mere animal would desire the Elysium of paganism or the paradise of Moham­ med 1 Who but a poor self-seeker, an earth-worm, would consider an existence spent in accumulating lore or money to be the glory or happiness of man 1 Who but a devil would deem it “ better to reign in hell than serve in heaven 1 ” The service of heaven is itself to reign. “ His servants shall serve him”— and “they shall reign for ever and ever.” To serve— by loving supremely Him who is altogether lovely— by increasing in the knowledge of Him who comprehends in Himself all that is true, great, and good— and by praising Him who alone is excellent, and the Author of all being and happiness— this is the high end of man’s existence at- 16* 3 5 6 THE SABBATH IN HEAVEN tained— this is liberty, this is honour, this is blessedness, this is perfection. It is a characteristic of the Sabbath that it is the means of manifold blessings, and this distinction is eminently displayed in heaven. The institution, as has been amply shown, strewed its earthly path with every variety of good, and would have conferred a much greater amount of benefit but for mistaken friends wh® misrepresented its character and detracted from its authority— but for real enemies who rejected the doctrine of its Divine origin and 1 obligation, or disobeyed its law. Even on earth it was the means of forming a character and bestowing a happiness, of which the holiness and bliss of heaven are the consummation. And its rest, worship, commemorations, studies, and employments there will yield, in continually growing amount, the fruits of righteousness and joy. For all this it has facilities formerly unknown— facilities in the perfect unanimity of the inhabitants respecting its claims and character—in the absence of all internal and outward hinder- ances to its observance—in the place itself, where, dwelling on high and in a quiet habitation, they enjoy perfect security and peace— and where they not only have the instructive, animating society of all the holy angels and all good men, but walk in the light of that temple of which it is said, “ The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” But it crowns the glory of the Sabbath in heaven, that it is eternal. This is that greatest Sabbath which has no evening.1 Its rest, it3 worship, its society, its commemorations, its advanc­ ing knowledge, holiness, and happiness, are to be without end. Spirits replenished with Divine influence, and having bodies endowed with undecaying health and strength, will be occupied in services which produce no weariness, and enjoy pleasures which never pall. The thought, beyond expression great, is gloomy to “ men of the world, who have their portion in this life,” but transporting to such as David, who expected to “ dwell in the house of the Lord for ever,” and to “ sing praises to God while he had any being,”— to such too, as the apostle, who felt that he could administer no stronger consolation to sorrowing Christiana than to say,— “ and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Sabbathum maximum, non habens vesperam.—August. De Civil Dei, cap. 30. EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY FOR A WEEKLY DAY OF REST AND WORSHIP. TRACES OF SEPTENARY INSTITUTIONS AMONG PAGAN NATIONS. There are certain observances which have prevailed to a wide extent, a3 well as from an early period, in the heathen world, and which, as bearing an affinity greater or less to the Sabbatic insti­ tution, may be considered as affording striking testimony to its primaeval origin. These are threefold : the appropriation of peri­ odical days to religion and rest from ordinary labour— the division of time into weeks— and the ascription of special importance to the septenary number. Traces of sacred days of some sort, though varying in frequency in different countries, may be discovered in many Pagan nations, the exceptions being limited to certain tribes sunk, like the abori­ gines of New Holland, to a very low point in the social scale. The Phoenicians, according to Porphyry, “ consecrated the seventh day as holy.” 1 Before Mohammed’s time, the Saracens kept their Sabbath on Friday, and from them he and his followers adopted the custom.2 It is stated by Purchas, that the natives of Pegu had a weekly day on which they assembled to receive instruc­ tion, from a class of men appointed for the purpose.3 The Pagan Slavonians held a weekly festival.4 In the greater part of Guinea, the seventh day— Tuesday— is set apart to religious worship.6 1 Euseb. Prcepar. Evang. lib; i. e. 9. 2 Purchas’s Pilgrim age, p. 264. 2 iud. p. 574. 4 Helmpldus, cited by Ussher. The Judgment of the late Archbishop of Armagh, pp. 79,80. 5 Hurd’s Religious Rites, etc. (1S12), p. 423. Bell’s Geography, iv. 3a . 3 6 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. It would appear that the Chinese, who have now no Sabbath, at one time honoured the seventh day of the week.1 Among the ancient Persians, the eighth was the festal day, the calendar of the Magi having this day marked in it as holy.2 The old Roman week consisted of eight days, and every eighth day was specially devoted to religious and other public purposes, under the name Nonse or Nundinse, so called from the Roman practice of adding the two nundinse to the seven intervening and ordinary days ; in the same way as in Germany and in our own country, the expression, “ eight days,” is used for a week, and as the French and Italians call a fortnight quinze jours, and quindici giorni, respectively.3 The people of Old Calabar observe an eighth-day Sabbath, termed Aqua-erere.4 Humboldt refers to an ancient law which required the Peruvians to work eight consecu­ tive days, and to rest on the ninth.5 The Burman feasts are held at the full and change of the moon.5 According to another authority, the quarters are also observed as festivals.7 A sacrifice was celebrated by the Mexicans every month, at the period of the full moon, in a public place, to which, in every village, the high road led from the house of the chief of the tribe.8 The inhabitants of Madagascar and of Senegambia, on the other hand, preferred the time of new moon for their devotions.9 One of the principal stated festivals in the South Sea Islands— the pae atua— was held every three moons.10 The Babylonians solemnized, with great magnificence, five days of the year. Twice every year, at the winter and summer solstices, the Emperor of China, in his character as high priest of the nation, offers prayer and sacrifice to Shang-Te, the Supreme Being.11 1 In a work ascribed to Fuh-he, who is supposed to have lived considerably more than four thousand years ago, the following remarkable sentence is to be found:— “ Every seven days comes the revolution”—that is, of the heavenly bodies, as generally explained by Chinese scholars; and it is a singular fact, that in the Chinese almanacs of the present day there are four names applicable, during the course of each lunar month, to the days which answer to our Sundays.—Gillespie’s Land ofSinim, pp. 161,162. 2 Hyde De Relig. Vet. Pers., pp. 189, 190. s Smith’s Diet. ofGr. and Rom,. Antiq., words Calendarium and Saturnalia. 1 Communication by Rev. H. Goldie, of Old Calabar, to the writer. 5 Researches, i. 285 6 Knowles’s Life of Mrs. Judson, p. 98. 1 Crawford’s Embassy. 8 Humboldt’s Researches, ii. 123. 8 Scott. Miss. Register, i. 230. Bell’s Geography (1849), iv. 6. 10 Ellis’j Polvnes. Researches (1831), i. 350. 11 Gillespie's land ofSinim., p. 166, PAGAN NATIONS. 3 6 1 Annual seasons of worship, also, have prevailed in many coun­ tries. Besides their daily offerings and frequent ablutions, the Hindus have a grand annual sacrifice.1 In China, in addition to the worship constantly performed by the priests at the temples, and numerous occasions, when the gods receive special honour, there is “ the festival of the Hew Year,” which is observed in the month of February of our year, as a season of idolatrous worship aud general festivity; and is the only season, during the whole twelve months, of universal gaiety, and total cessation from busi­ ness.2 The conclusion of the year— called its “ ripening”— was celebrated in Huahine, one of the Society Islands, with a°festival, which was regarded as a kind of annual acknowledgment to the gods.2 Of the Saturnalia, which, with the Opalia and the Sigil- laria, occupied seven days once a year, Macrobius affirms that° it v as a festival older than Rome itself.* The anniversary of Bel or Baal (Beltein), lately lingered, if it does not still linger, in some parts of Scotland.5 But it were endless to enumerate examples of annual festivals, as these, particularly on the first day of the year, have been common in almost all countries. Y bile it will be admitted that the instances adduced of weekly holy days have a direct bearing on our subject, it may be asked, What relation have octonary, monthly, quarterly, or annual obser­ vances to. a seventh day of rest and worship ? Oiu first answer to this question is, that such observances ex­ emplify the Sabbatic principle, so far as regards stated seasons of devotion, and of exemption from ordinary labour. This labour is discontinued, and homage is rendered to some deity, at certain periodical times. Cases of Sabbatism, to this extent, are frequent. The people of Calabar were wont, on their Sabbath, to approach the Supreme Being (Abasi) in prayer; and though they now ob­ serve the day merely as a holiday and in merry-making, they abstain from labour in the fields, and suppose, that if they did not so abstain, their labour would be unprofitable, and some evil would befall the labourers.6 The Ashantees on their sacred day, 1 Rnwclopadia of Religious Knowledge, p. 623. s Gillespie’s Sinim, pp. 67, 78. s Ellis’s Polynes. Researches (183i), i. 351, 352. 4 Saturnal, lib. i. cap. 7. ’ * Stewart’s Sketches of the Highlanders of Scotland, i. 9. • Communication of Mr. Goldie. 3 6 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. ■worship their fetiches, and circumcise their children.1 In Guinea* generally, similar practices have prevailed. Purchas says of the people, “ The seventh day they leave working, and reckon that to he their day of ease and abstinence from work, or their Sunday, which they call Dio Fetissos. They hold it on Tuesday. That day the fishermen go not to the sea for fish, etc. They have a priest or fetissero. He, upon their Sabbath-day, sits upon a stool in the middle of the market, before the altar or place whereupon they sacrifice unto their fetisso, and then all the men, women, and children come and sit round about him, and then he spCaketh unto them, and they sit still to hear.” 1 2 A recent account states, that the negroes of Guinea desist on the seventh day from the labour of fishing, though no other occupation is interrupted, and that every man dedicates to the honour of his tutelar divinity one day in the week, on which he drinks no palm-wine till sunset.3 The only religious service in Pegu was one of public instruction. The preachers rose early, and by the ringing of a bason, called together the people to their sermons.4 The Peruvians, we have seen, were to rest every ninth day. Oh the days of the Burman feasts, all public business is suspended— the people pay their homage to Gaudama at the temples, presenting to the image, rice, fruits, flowers, candles, etc. Aged persons often fast during the whole day. Some visit the colleges, and hear the priests read portions of the Boodhist writings.5 The purpose of the Mexican monthly, and of the Hindoo annual, festival, was the offering of sacrifice. In Senegambia, both the Kafirs and Mohammedan converts, at the appearance of the new moon, give vent to an ejaculatory address to the Deity, thanking him for his goodness during the month that has elapsed, and imploring a continuance of his favour during the month that is commencing.6 The quarterly feast of the South Sea Islanders was observed with religious rites, followed by an entertainment; and on occasion of the annual festival in Huahine, there wrere prayers at the Marae (temple), and a banquet, after which each individual returned to his home, or to his family 1 Hurd, 423. 2 Purchas’s Pilgrimage, Book 7, ck. 2, sect. L » Bell’s Geography (1S49), iv. 30. * Purchas’g Pilgrimage, p. 574. s Knowles’s Life of Mrs. Judson, p. 98. 6 Bell’s Geography, iv. 6. PAGAN NATIONS. 3 6 3 marae, there to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives.1 Such, too, were the Sabbatical observances of-ancient times. The Persians worshipped the sun : in allusion to which practice, Tertullian says, iEque si diem solis ketitise indulgemus, alia longk ratione quam religione solis— “ If we spend Sunday joyfully, as well as they, it is for a very different reason from the worship of the sun.” 2 The Greeks and Romans, according to Aretius, consecrated Saturday to rest, conceiving it unfit for civil actions and warlike affairs) Dirt suited for contemplation ; and a day, therefore, on which the Divine patronage was to be implored against dangers and misfortunes.3 The following lines of the old annalist, Lucius Accius, quoted by Macrobius, inform us that the Greeks, in town and country, especially in Athens, celebrated the feast of the Saturnalia in honour of Saturn, masters and servants feasting together:— “ Maxima pars graium Satumo; et maxime Athena Conficiunt sacra, quas Cronia esse iterantur ab illis. Cumque diem celebrant, per agros, urbesque fere omnes Exercent epulis Iseti, famulosque procurant Quisque suos: nostrisque itidem et mos traditus illhinc Iste, ut cum dominis famuli turn epulentur ibidem.” 4 “ The manner in which all public fence were kept,” to quote again from one of the best works on Greek and Roman antiquities, “ bears great analogy to our Sunday. The people generally visited the temples of the gods, and offered up their prayers and sacri­ fices. The most serious and solemn seem to have been the fence imperatives, but all the others were generally attended by rejoic­ ings and feastings. All kinds of business, especially law-suits, were suspended during the public -fence, as they were considered to pollute the sacred season.”5 The author proceeds to give speci­ mens of decisions by Roman pontiffs, in cases of doubt, as to the kinds of work that might be done on the ferics ; and when we mention that the works pronounced lawful were such as had refer- i EUis’s Polynesian Researches, i. 351, 352. a Apol. v. Gent. xvii. 8 Problem loc. cle Sab. Observ. « Saturnal, lib. i. oap. 7 8 Dictionary, article Ferics. 364 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. ence to the gods, to the supply of the urgent wants of human life, to circumstances in which injury or suffering would be the result of neglect or delay, as of a tottering house, or of an ox fall­ ing; into a pit, we must admit the striking resemblance, in some respects, of the ferice to the Sabbath of Kevelation. But the question of the relevancy of heathen holidays to our subject requires a further answer. There is good reason to believe that these holidays are corruptions of the Sabbatic institution, as respects both its proportion of time, and the nature of its engage­ ments. The curtailing of its time has been the result, in some instances, of a process by which septenary have gradually passed into less frequent, because thus more congenial observances; and in others, of the violent and crafty measures of rulers, who have been known summarily to transfer the stated rest from the seventh day to a tenth, or to expunge all but a yearly sacred day from the national calendars. Such facts as Jeroboam’s substitution of his one feast of the eighth month for the Jewish feasts— the'reducing of the seasons of worship in Persia by Yezdegerd to that of Nau- ruz, or New-Year’s Day— and the institution of decades in France, prepare us for more readily assenting to a statement made by some of the Fathers, to the effect that, at a very early period, the place of the weekly Sabbath was usurped by an annual religious festival. And the revolutionized object and rites, as well as day of the French worship— the weekly prayers of Calabar succeeded by mere rest and merriment— the desecrated Sabbath of the Jews, at various periods of their history, and of many professed Christians, still, with the entire disappearance of a seventh sacred day in China, if not also in the islands of Polynesia— are proofs' how possible it is, that a holy day may not only become a day of revelry and wickedness, but ultimately be absorbed in the current of ordinary time. The distribution of time into weeks, is another observance which appears to have a close connexion with a septenary day of rest and sacredness. The antiquity and extensive prevalence of this practice might be established by ample historical details. Let it suffice, however, in a matter on which there is so general an agree­ ment, to present the words of four eminent writers :— “ The septenary arrangement of days,” says Scaliger, “ was in use among RAGAN NATIONS. 3 6 5 the Orientals from the remotest antiquity.”1 “ We have reason to believe,” observes President de Goguet, “ that the institution of that short period of seven days, called a week, was the first step taken by mankind in dividing and measuring their time. We find, from time immemorial, the use of this period among all nations, without any variation in the form of it. The Israelites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, and, in a word, all the nations of the east, have in all ages made use of a week, consisting of seven days. We find the same custom among the ancient Homans, Gauls, Britons, Germans, the nations of the north, and of Ame­ rica.’ “ According to Laplace, “ the week is perhaps the most ancient and incontestable monument of human knowledge.”3 We add a sentence from Humboldt, venturing, however, to premise, that the Peruvian ninth day of rest seems to prove a former nota­ tion of time by weeks even in America. « It appears,” he re­ marks, “ that no nation of the New Continent was acquainted with the week or cycle of seven days, which we find among the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians, and which, as Le Gentil has very justly observed, is followed by the greater part of the nations of the Old World.”4 The respect shown to the septenary number is a third pagan observance of a Sabbatic character, which calls for notice. How­ ever much certain numbers, as three, four, ten, and others, might be prized, none appears to have been honoured with so permanent and general an estimation as the numerus septenarius. There is no species of subject, religious or secular, divine or human, spiri­ tual or material, which it has not been employed to illustrate and magnify. And it has been in use for these purposes by peoples the most diversified in condition, and the most remote from each other in place and time. It has been consulted in the construc­ tion alike of Egyptian pyramids and cities, Assyrian and Arabian temples, and Indian pagodas. It has been sacred equally to Saturn and to the planets, to the sun-god of Persia, and to the elements and week-gods of Scandinavia. It has determined the number of the seasons of mourning, and the days of expiation— of the won­ ders of the world, and the wise among men. It directed the 1 Be Emend. Temp. lib. i. « The Origin of La ws (1761), vol. I p. 230. * (Euvrcs, tom. vi. (1846), liv. i. ch. 3. 4 Researches, vol. i. p. 283. 3 6 6 th e s a b b a t h i n h is t o r y . heating of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. It ruled the retinue of the court of Shushan. It has sounded the depths of slavery. It has measured noble deeds. Ajax bore his shield covered with seven hides. Boreas ruled in his sevenfold, many-celled cave. The classes of the Polynesian areois, supposed to be a society of divine original, were seven. The chosen conductors of the great annual sacrifice offered by the wild Indians were seven. The priests who prepared the more solemn feasts in ancient Rome were seven. Seven was the complete number of sacrificial victims with Deio- phobe as with Balaam— in Athens as in the land of Uz. Seven ewe-lambs sealed the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech. Agamemnon’s peace-offering to Achilles included seven tripods and seven maids. Seven ages were the gift of the gods to Tithonus; and according to Shakspere, “ All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts: His acts being seven ages.” And taking a loftier flight than our poet, the Hindu, not unlike the Mohammedan, whose expected paradise is seven heavens, imagines a sidereal ladder, through whose seven gates his soul is to ascend to the residence of Brama— its own pristine as well as last abode of bliss. In accounting for facts so diversified, and yet having so much in common, we must resort to some powerful variable force, not to a physical or natural law. If, for example, there had been anything, as there was not, in the revolution of the moon, or in the peculiar excellence of the number “ Seven,” to originate sep­ tenary observances, the observances would have been found where- ever the course of the planet was seen, or the number known. We must, moreover, trace the facts to a cause operating at a re­ mote fountainhead of nations. Laplace assigns to the week a high antiquity, and its existence among all successive generations is held to be “ a proof of their common origin.”1 The septenary enumeration of the planets, and Jewish example, came too late to 1 (H u m s , tom. v l liv. i. chap. iii. PAGAN NATIONS. 367 produce the first instances of the week in heathendom. Finally, the greater prevalence of this division of time in the East seems to point to its origin in that direction. All these conditions are fulfilled by the account in the Penta­ teuch, the oldest of books, which relates, that the Creator having made the world in six days, rested on, blessed, and sanctified the seventh ; and which, after repeated notices of worship, and of re­ spect for the number seven, as applied to time as to other things, acquaints us with the dispersion from Sliinar, into all countries, of the descendants of the only family that had survived the deso­ lating flood. By them were the creation, the week, the state of innocence, the fall, the deluge, and other subjects— all recorded afterwards by Moses, and found pervading and partially redeem­ ing so many heathen mythologies— made known throughout the world. In the relation of septenary observances to religion, crea­ tion, and the flood, aided by the proverbial power of customs de­ rived from ancestors, we find the moral force adequate to the conveyance of these observances, despite of many hostile influences, over thousands of years. But a momentum, depending upon fading traditions, must decrease ; and hence changes have come over the week and Sabbath of Paganism, while in countries en­ joying a -written revelation, they have remained in their integrity and power. If philosophy, which disclaims the fanciful and the intricate, when she has found the simple andthe satisfactory, be listened to, it will be admitted that the traces of pagan rites confirm the Mosaic record, and the doctrine of a primal, Divine Sabbath, by an amount of evidence which, in a matter involving no fierce antipathies, would command an unhesitating and unqualified belief. “ Many vain conjectures have been formed concerning the reasons and motives which determined all mankind to agree in this primitive division of their time. Nothing but tradition concerning the space of time employed in the creation of the world, could give rise to this universal, immemorial practice.” 1 * President de G oguet O rig in o f L a m , voL L p. SS9. 368 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. THE SABBATH OR LORD’S DAY IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY. A statement of the evidence for the authority and value of the Sabbath would be incomplete tvithout some account of its history. The Word of God, indeed, is the standard of all religious faith and practice, but we must be indebted to the annals of the world, and especially of the Church, for help in ascertaining the canon of revelation, in interpreting its language, and in verifying its declarations and prophecies, its promises and warnings. In the aid derived from these annals our subject largely shares. The manifold vestiges of the Sabbatic institution, traceable in the written remains of heathen nations, strikingly confirm the doctrine of its primaeval and Divine appointment. And as we follow its track in Christendom, we find that ecclesiastical records render, in various forms, still more important service. The history of the earlier centuries of Christianity throws light on the meaning of certain Scripture terms which have been the occasion of a vexed question among controversialists. In desig­ nating what is now known amongst us as the Christian Sabbath, the Fathers make use of names which they never apply to any other day of the wepk. With them “ the eighth day,” “ the day of the Sun,” “ the first day of the week,” and “ the Lord’s Day,” signify one particular day and no other. Barnabas, or whoever was the author of the Catholic Epistle ascribed to him, mentions “ the eighth day” as that oh which “ Jesus rose from the dead,” and which the Christians of his time observed as a festal day.1 We are informed by Justin Martyr, that the Christians of the second century assembled on “ the day of the Sun,” and that they did so, “ because on this first day God made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead.” 2 The same Father affirms, that “ Christ rose from the dead on the eighth day,” which, he adds, “ may be called the eighth and yet remains the first.” 3 In the third century, Cyprian represents the eighth day as both “ the first after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s Day.”4 1 Epist. c. 15. s Dial, cum Tryph. c. 41. 2 Apol. 1, adfinem . * Epist. 64. CENTURIES I.-III. 369 When we compare these passages with each other, we find that “ the eighth day,'1-’ “ the day of the Sun,” or Sunday, “ the day of the Redeemer’s resurrection,” “ the first day of the week,” and “ the Lord’s Day,” are, according to the combined testimony of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, and Cyprian, the same day. Were it not that we are limited by our theme to a certain period, we might enlarge the proof from the language of Hilary, Ambrose, Chry­ sostom, and Augustine. Theorists, who affirm that the Jewish seventh day continues the day of the Christian Sabbath, and others, who assert that there is no evidence in the New Testament for the Divine appointment of a day of sacred rest under Christianity at all, have thus one of the chief grounds of their opinions swept away— the ground, that the expressions, “ the first day of the week,” and “ the Lord’s Day,” do not denote the day to which in our time they are usually applied. There is the most satisfactory proof in Scripture itself, that the designations must be so under­ stood ; but when Christian writers— some of whom were conver­ sant with persons that might have seen and heard the apostle John— agree with the great body of Christians in their views of such phraseology, not a shade of doubt ought to remain as to the correctness of the interpretation. It is otherwise, as respects uniformity of meaning, with the word “ Sabbath,” which is not in the writings of the Fathers employed to indicate exclusively one day. The earlier Fathers appear always to express by it tire ^seventh ” day, while they designate by some one or other of the above-menfioned terms the distinctive season of Christian worship. As “ the Sabbath” had been for so long a time the well-known title of the weekly holy day among the Jews, it was obviously needful for preventing mis­ take, that the institution which had passed to a new day should have a new name. But as time advanced, and may not we add, as the Lord’s day came to be no longer in danger of being confounded with the Jewish Sabbath, the old name was gradually resumed and attached to the Christian holy day. The earliest instance of the restoration of the wordTo its ancient honour, that we have discovered, occurs in a passage of Irenaeus (a .d . 178), where, after showing that Christ in healing the sick did nothing “ beyond the law of the Sabbath-day,” he draws the conclusion, that “ the it a 3 7 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. true sanctification of the Sabbath consists in doing works of mercy.” 1 He is followed by Clemens Alexandrinus, who holds the eighth day “ to be properly the Sabbath, but the seventh a working day ;” 2 and by Origen, who says, “ Leaving the Jewish observances, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be kept by a Christian concluding his description with the words, “ This is the observance of the Christian Sabbath.” 3 Examples might also be given from the writings of Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome, Augustine, Rufinus, and Chrysostom, but they belong to a later date. Several instances, doubtless, exist in which Augustine and others employ the word “ Sabbath” in its original acceptation. But this they do when they have occasion to mention and discrimi­ nate the Jewish and Christian weekly days of rest; and, even in this case, they sometimes say, “ the Jewish Sabbath.” On other occasions, they feel that there is no need of any explanatory or qualifying epithet when they call the Lord’s day the Sabbath ; a fact which is only in harmony with the conviction, everywhere manifest in their writings, that the Sabbatic institution had, be­ sides specific relations to the Mosaic and Christian economies, a generic rest and sacredness common to all times. The Fathers might conceive, as many since their days have done, that there is something in.a name, and that though circumstances required them for a time to restrict themselves to certain expressions, they could not, in justice to ancient rights, or dutifully to the immut­ able Decalogue, surrender a word so significant of their privileges and obligations as “ the Sabbath.” There is a particular instance of the employment of the word “ Sabbath-day,” in the New Testament, as to the reference of which, whether to the seventh-day or to the first-day Sabbath, there has been some controversy. It has occurred to us that a solution of the difficulty may be found in the following remarks. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus in a .d . 7 0. Our Lord had, in reference to that event, said to his disciples, “ There shall not an hair of your head perish. When ye shall see Jeru­ salem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them wfuch are in Judea flee to the 1 Adv. Hceres, lib. iv. c. 19. * Horn. 23, in Nuiu. 3 Strom, lib. vi. c. 16. CENTURIES i.-nr. 3 7 1 mountains, and let them -which are in the midst of it depart out ” (Luke Xxi. 18, 20, 21). In fulfilment of these words, both of promise and command, the Christians had escaped and taken re­ fuge at Pella.1 From the tactics employed by the Roman gene­ ral, we learn what day was intended in another command of our Lord to his disciples : “ Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day” (Matt. xxiv. 20). We are nowhere informed of the precise time at which the Christians left the city. It is only in general terms stated by Eusebius that they did so after the war had commenced under the conduct of Titus. It has often been affirmed that they left the city at the time of the retreat of Cestius Gallus, when, according to Josephus, many of the most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city as from a sinking ship.2 But the departure of the Christians is not mentioned by that historian as having then occurred, nor does the supposition agree with the language either of Eusebius or of the evangelists, the latter defining the time as that when Jeru­ salem was to be encompassed with armies, and the abomination of desolation should stand in the holy place (Matt. xxiv. lo ; Mark xiii. 14 ; Luke xxi. 20). The military ensigns were the chief objects of Roman idolatry, and when these were brought to the temple, and sacrifices were offered to them, « the abomination of desolation stood in the holy place.” This was the signal for flight to the followers of Christ. The season was summer, and the day was not the Lord’s day,— for on that day Titus made his attacks, — but a Jewish Sabbath-day, when, knowing that the inhabitants would not desecrate the time by any military or other work, he employed himself in constructing machines, and making his pre­ parations for the active prosecution of the siege on the other days.3 Saturday was the most convenient, if not the only pos­ sible day, on which the Christians could leave the city. In their situation, it is not conceivable that they could forget their Lord’s command to them to pray. Their supplications were heard as 1 Euseb. Hist. lib. ii. c. 5. 3 Wars of the Jews, B. 11. ch. 20. 3 Titus employed the Sabbath-days in constructing machines, etc., previous to his attacks on the following Sundays. His first assault was on Sunday, April 22, a.d. 70. Part of the lower city was taken, Sunday, May 6; the temple was burnt, Sunday. August 5; and the upper city was taken and destroyed, Sunday, Sept. 2.—Kitto's History of Palestine, voL ii. p. 750. 372 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. regarded the season. They must have been heard also as to the day. If we are right in conceiving that the day of their escape was a Saturday, the Sabbath-day referred to in Matt, xxiv. 20 was not, as some contend, the last, but the first clay of the week. We have abundant evidence that a stated day was sacredly ob­ served by the Christians in the first three centuries, and that this was the first day of the week. Clement of Eome (68-70), in writing on behalf of the Church there to the Church of Corinth, says : “ We ought to do in order all things which the Lord hath required us to observe at stated times. The offerings and sacred services, which it is our duty to render, he hath commanded to be presented neither carelessly nor irregularly, but at appointed times and hours.” 1 The writer here intimates, as a fact known to both churches, that Christ had prescribed seasons for divine worship. The want of reference to any particular season by name implies the notoriety of the matter. We have followed the transactions of the second century for only a very few years, when we light upon a record of sacred usage in Bithynia, the more satisfactory in some respects that it comes from a hostile quarter. We refer to the celebrated letter of Pliny the younger, written to the Emperor Trajan. As lieutenant of the emperor in Pontus and Bithynia, he had been ordered to em­ ploy the severest measures against the Christians under his authority, but judged it prudent, before proceeding to the utmost . rigour, to represent their case to his master. He says, that after being examined, “ they affirmed that the whole of their fault or error lay in this, that they were wont to meet together on a stated day, before it was light, and sing among themselves by turns a hymn to Christ as God, and to bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, never to break a promise, or to deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it. When these things were performed, it was their custom to sepa­ rate, and then to come together again to a meal, which they ate in common without any disorder; but this they had forborne 1 Epist. sect. 40. CENTURIES I.-m . 3 7 3 since the publication of my edict, whereby, according to your commands, I prohibited assemblies.”1 How extensively the reli­ gion, which Pliny calls “ the superstition,” of these good and peaceful members of society, had spread, appears when he adds : “ Many of all ages, and every rank, of both sexes likewise, are accused and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of the super­ stition seized cities only, but the smaller towns also, and the open country. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it may be restrained or corrected. It is certain that the temples, which were almost for­ saken, begin to be more frequented, and the sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived. Victims, also, are every­ where bought up, whereas for some time there were few pur­ chasers.” From this time, for a period of some thirty years, we find no trace of the Lord’s Day. But the circumstantial account of the manner in which the Christians spent their holy day, as given by Justin Martyr, in lus first Apology ( a.d . 138 or 139), fully compensates the preceding blank. “ On the day called Sunday,” he writes, “ there is a meeting in one place of all who reside whether in the towns or in the country, and the memoirs of the apostles, and the writings of the prophets are read. The reader having concluded, the president delivers a discourse, instructing the people, and exhorting them to imitate the good things which they have heard. Then we all stand up together, and engage in prayer, after which bread is brought in, with wTine and w’ater. The president offers up, according to his ability, prayers and thanks a second time, to which the people express their assent with a loud Amen. Then follow a general distribution and parti­ cipation of the things for which thanks have been given, and a portion is conveyed to the absent by the deacons. The more affluent contribute of their substance as each is inclined, and the remnant is intrusted to the president, wherew'ith he relieves the orphans, wridow7s, etc. We all assemble together in common on Sunday, because it was on this first day that God having changed darkness and chaos, made the world, and because on the same day Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead. For he was crucified the day before that of Saturn, and on the day after that of 1 C. Plin. C. Sac. lib. x. ev. 97. 11 374 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, he appeared to his apostles and disciples, and taught them what we now submit to your con­ sideration.” 1 After a lapse of another period of thirty years, we are again furnished with ample testimony to the continued life and vigour of the institution. In a .d . 170, the Lord’s day is known at Sardis, for Melito, bishop of the church there, writes a book on the subject, and Eusebius, who supplies the information, and who attests the character of the weekly holy day in his own time, must be considered as intimating the identity of the sacred season in Sardis and Caesarea. Of the same date is the evidence of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who appeals to the observance of the Lord’s day as a custom in the churches, and of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, who, in writing to the Romans, and to Soter, their bishop, and after commending them for their liberality to their brethren and to other churches, which had distinguished them during their whole history, remarks, “ We have passed (or kept) the Lord’s day and perused your epistle, which we shall hereafter read continually, as we do that of Clemens, that we may be replenished with precepts and wholesome instructions.” 2 Al­ ready, we see, had a practice been introduced different from that described by Justin Martyr, who says nothing of any reading in the church but of the sacred writings. The words of Dionysius, however, while they clearly certify the regular observance of the Lord’s day at Corinth, imply a common understanding and interest in the subject there and in Rome, and also suggest what must have been “ the appointed times,” referred to in the epistle which Clement had written from the church of the latter city to that of the former a hundred years before. The words of Irenasus and Clemens Alexandrinus (a .d . 178) on the subject, are more appropriate to a subsequent page. It is enough at present to say, that the language of both writers indi­ cates the general respect for the Lord’s day which was entertained at the period when they flourished. Like Pliny and Justin Martyr, but with still more detail, Ter- tullian sets forth the manner in which Christian worship was con­ ducted in his time. Although he does not mention the day in 1 Apol. 1, adfinrn. a Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. c. 22. CENTURIES I.-m. 3 7 5 the description itself, he has, in a preceding chapter of the same work, declared, that the Christians solemnized “ the day of the Sun,” “ the day after Saturday, in distinction from those who call this day their Sabbath.” The passage is too long for insertion, but the following is, we trust, a faithful translation of so much of it as bears upon our subject:— “ We Christians, incorporated by our common faith, worship, and hopes, meet for prayer, in which we as it were take the kingdom of heaven by a violence grateful to God, not forgetting to offer up supplications for emperors, and all in authority, for the prosperity and peace of the state, and for the delay of the final doom. We assemble, also, for receiving instruction, warning, and exhortation from the Divine Word, whereby we nourish our faith, animate our hope, establish our confidence, and stir up ourselves by every argument to the practice of good works. On these occasions discipline is administered with all solemnity, and the censures pronounced on offenders are re­ garded as anticipating the judgment to come. Every one puts something into the public stock once a month, or when he pleases, and according to his ability and inclination, for there is no com­ pulsion ; these pious deposits being applied, not to the indulgence of appetite, but in aid of the poor, orphans, the aged, the ship­ wrecked, the persecuted, and for burying the dead. Then follows a supper, a love-feast, not an entertainment for the sensual, but a refreshment to the hungry and the needy. To this supper we do not sit down till we have previously tasted the pleasure of prayer to God ; we sup in the recollection that God is to be worshipped in the night season, and we converse with the consciousness that He hears us. Praise succeeds, and the whole is concluded with prayer, when we depart; not for the purposes of dissipation, licen­ tiousness, of violence, but with the same regard to purity and moderation as in our coming together, like men who have been enjoying a spiritual banquet rather than a common supper.” 1 Thus, for another century, notwithstanding a variety of influences tending to its injury, has the Lord’s day continued to maintain its pre-eminence, and to be kept with sacred care. And it is import­ ant to remark the connexion of a well-observed holy day with the general excellence of the Church, since it was at this time that 1 Apol. c. S9. 3 7 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. the beautiful panegyric was extorted from her enemies, “ Behold how these Christians love one another ! ” 1 In the third century, amidst various internal sources of weak­ ness to the Church, and assaults against her from without, the weekly holy day continued to be held in honour. “ On a solemn day,” says Minucius Felix, referring to the day of public worship, and of the love-feast which followed, “ persons of both sexes, and of every age, assemble at a feast with all their children, sisters and mothers.” 2 The writings of Origen show that the Lord’s day was observed at Alexandria, and that he was careful to instruct his flock in the duties of the day.3 Cyprian of Carthage has a single sentence on the subject, afterwards to be quoted, which is the more important that it expresses the views of a Council held in a .d . 253, and which implies the unchallenged recognition in his time of the institution itself. And the evidence of Commodian ( a .d . 270), who mentions the Lord's day, and of Yictorine (a .d , 290), who says, “ It is our custom then [on the seventh day] to fast, lest we should seem to observe the Sabbath of the Jews ;”4 was only wanting to complete the proof that the lapse of three centuries, with the assaults of heathen and Jewish persecution, and the growing corruption of the Church, has left to a great ex­ tent in its primitive simplicity and sacredness, the ordinance of a weekly season of rest and devotion. The history of the period under review, besides throwing light on the names and observance of the Sabbath, acquaints us’with the doctrinal views entertained by the early Fathers in reference to the institution. . We indeed have the same Scriptures to deter­ mine our creed on the subject as they had ; but when a doctrine is apparently consonant to that supreme authority, our confidence in the conviction that wre have read the document correctly, is strongly confirmed by the coincidence of our opinions with those of good men, especially of such of them as lived within a compa­ ratively short time of the apostolic age. Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian, uncontradicted by any early Christian writers, held, that tlie Sabbath was of primaeval appointment. Little has been said i Ibid. Tertullian mentions (Adv. Psyc. c. 13), that the psalm most frequently sung by tire Christians was the 133d. 2 Octavius, c. 9. * Contr. Celsum, lib. 8. Horn. 5. in Isa. il 4 Holden on the Sabbath, p. 306. CENTURIES I.-m. 3 7 7 on the theory of the institution by the Fathers who preceded Tertullian. He states, “ that Christ himself made the Sabbath- day more holy by his well-doing on it, which by the blessing of the Father was made holy from the beginning ; and declares, that this view of the antiquity of the day was entertained by the Jews of his time.2 Origen expresses the opinion, that Job ob­ served a seventh day, and regards the narrative in Genesis ii. 1-3, as intimating the institution of the Sabbath when the work of creation was finished.3 The Fathers of the first three centuries believed that the Jewish Sabbath-day had been set aside. To Trypho’s assumption of the permanence of the seventh-day rest, Justin Martyr replies, “ There was no need of the Sabbaths, nor festivals, nor oblations, before Moses ; so now, in like manner, there is no need of them, since Jesus Christ the Son of God, was, by the determinate counsel of God, born of a virgin, of the seed of Abraham, without sin.” 4 Clemens Alexandrinus regards the seventh day as no longer en­ titled to be called the Sabbath, but as having taken the place of a working day. 5 The same doctrine is held by Tertullian, who says, in name of Christians, “ We have nothing to do with the Sabbaths, new moons, and feasts in which God at one time took pleasure.” 6 He affirms, and enlarges on the statement, that the seventh day was “ a temporary Sabbath.”7 Additional illustra­ tions will occur under our next remark. According to the early Fathers, the first day of the week has been by Divine authority appointed the day of rest and worship for Christians, nT place o f fTm~s’evdhfTi,”' fife day of'tKe Jewish Sabbath, (^lenient of Rome, as we have seen, urges attention to the seasons of worship which Christ had commanded to be ob­ served. Barnabas, disclaiming the old Sabbath-day, declares the eighth day to be its acceptable substitute.8 Justin Martyr, too, not only condemns the Jews for adhering to the former day, but describes the worship of the Christians in his time as observed on the day of the sun, and states that they assembled for that pur- 1 Adv. Maroon, lib. iv. e. 12. 2 Adv. Jud. c. iv. * Kennicott’s Two Dissert, p. 109, note. Origenis Con. Cels., lib. 6 (Cantab. 1658), p. 817, et in Mat. Tract, p. 20. 4 Dial, cum Tryph. sect 23. 5 Strom, lib. vi. j. 16, 6 De Idolatrid, c. 14. 7 Adv. Jud. lib. iv. 8 EpisL c. 15. 3 7 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. pose on the first day, as it was the day on which God made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead.1 “ This commandment,” says Clement of Alexandria, “ informs us that the world was made by God, and that he gave us the seventh day for rest on account of the sufferings and afflictions of life; and the eighth day,” he adds, “ appears rightly to be named the seventh, and to be the true Sabbath, but the seventh to be a working day.”2 The writings of Tertullian abound in testimonies -to his faith in the Divine authority of the Lord’s day, some of which will fall to be noticed under another head. Cyprian testifies to the same belief. In writing to Fidus, one of the clergy of Car­ thage, who held that infants ought not to be baptized before the eighth day, and informing him of the decision against hitn of a council called to consider his opiniofi, he says, that the practice of observing circumcision on the eighth day was a type fulfilled in Christ, and adds, “ For because the eighth day, that is the first after the Sabbath, was to be the day on which the Lord should rise, quicken us, and give us the circumcision of the Spirit, this eighth day or the first after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s day, was foreshown in the figure, which figure ceased with the realization of its import, and the bestowal of the spiritual circumcision.”3 Unlike some modern writers, the Clements, and others, do not arrogate to the Church the appointment of the weekly holy day. Let us hear Tertullian, “ The apostles introduced nothing at their own discretion, but faithfully assigned to the people the discipline which they had received from Christ.” 4 It was the creed of the Fathers, that the Lord’s day ought to be wholly spent in sacred rest and service. All ordinary work was to be discontinued on that day. Tertullian, in remarking on the words, “ Thou shalt do no work,” asks, “ What work I” and answers, “ Thine own, doubtless. For it follows that he should take away those works from the Sabbath, which he had previously indicated to belong to the six days. Thine own— that is, human and customary works.” 5 The same writer, in contending for the honours of the Lord’s day, and after mentioning that it was the practice of a very few to abstain from kneeling in prayer on 1 Apol. I. a d fin. 2 Strom, lib. vi. c. 16. 8 E pist. 64. ~ 4 JOe Proescript. adv. Hotret. c. 6. s Adv. Marcion, lib. ii. c. 31. CENTURIES I.-m. 3 7 9 Sabbath— that is, Saturday, says, “ But we ought, according to the doctrine received by us, to beware on the Lord’s day alone, not of that only”— kneeling in prayer— “ but of all anxiety, deferring even business, lest we should give place in any degree to the devil.”1 Like-minded as to the duty of entire rest from work was Origen, who remarks, “ Leaving the Jewish observances, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. That Sabbatism, mentioned Heb. iv. 9, is the observation of the Sab­ bath, on which no worldly actions ought to be done.”2 Not that the Fathers supposed that sacred time was profaned by labour in cases of necessity. When Tertullian has shown, as already quoted, that we are not to do our own works, he adds, “ But to carry about the Ark, that is, round the -walls of Jericho, can seem neither a daily work nor a human, but a rare and holy work, and / therefore by the very commandment of God divine.”3 “ The priests,” says Irenseus, “ in kindling a fire and slaying beasts on the Sabbath-day, were not guilty of any sin.”4 That worldly \ pleasures were to be shunned, while frequently inculcated by the later Fathers as one of the duties of the Lord’s day, is plainly involved in the language already quoted. The proper business of that day, be it further remarked, was, in the view of these excel­ lent men, the service of God in works of piety and benevolence. Origen not only excludes secular work from the engagements of the Sabbath, as in the words formerly adduced, but completes the description of a sanctified day thus : “ If, therefore, you cease from all worldly works, and execute nothing worldly, but give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction, thinking of celestial things, solicitous for the future, placing the judgment to come before your ( eyes, not looking to things present and visible, but to'those which are future and invisible— this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath.”5 But works of benevolence are to be addecT Irenseus slWwslhat Christ in healing the sick did nothing beyond the law, j which did not prohibit cures upon the Sabbath-day, or even caring for cattle; and then draws the conclusion, “ That the true sanctification of the Sabbath consists in doing works of 1 He Orat., e. 23. 8 Horn. 23, in Num. 8 Adv. Marcion, lib. ii. c, 21. * CorUr. Valent., lib. iv. c. 19. * Horn. 23, in Ntun. mercy.” 1 To the same effect is a chapter in Tertullian’s work against Marcion.2 * Let us, under this topic, add, that the Fathers, while they sufficiently disclaimed the Jewish ceremonies, have occasionally avowed their faith in the substantial sameness of Sabbatic obliga­ tions under the Jewish and Christian dispensations, and that several of them, earlier and later, have, without dissent so far as we have seen on the part of any, recognised the Fourth Command­ ment as the abiding rule of the Christian holy day. Thus Irenceus : “ Preparing men for a life of holiness, the Lord Himself with His own voice spake the words of the Decalogue alike to a ll: these commandments, therefore, continue with us, extended and enlarged, not abolished, by his coming in the flesh. But the ordinances of bondage he gave to the people separately by the voice of Moses ; as Moses himself says, ‘ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments.’ These, then, which were given as a yoke of bondage, and as a sign to them, he has blotted out by the new covenant of liberty.”3 Clemens Alexan- drinus held the continued authority of the Decalogue, from his exposition of the fourth precept of wdiieh we have already extracted a remarkable sentence on the Sabbatic institution. Let us add another remark, which is, that the Fathers, with all honest men, recognised in a day devoted to the Divine service, a whole day. The ancient tithes consisted of a tenth part of a person’s substance, which was consecrated to a religious use. In like manner, when a seventh day was set apart to God, it was one entire day out of the seven. The sacred half-days— the interdsi of the heathen, had an analogy to some of the Mosaic holy days, but not to the weekly Sabbath. When Dionysius of Corinth said that he and the Church had kept the Lord’s day, his language means that they had kept the day throughout. Sabbaths, in the estimate of Irenaeus, wTere whole days. Origen upbraids those “ who gave one or two hours of the day to God, and came to church to prayers, or heard the Word of God in passing, but expended the remaining portion of it on the world and their appetites.” * 3 8 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 1 Contr. Valent., lib. iv. c. 19. • Adv. /fares., lib. iv. c. 81. a Lib. iv. 3. 12. « H m. in Num. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 3 8 1 There is yet another part of the Sabbatic creed, held by the early Christians, which deserves a concluding brief notice. We refer to their high estimate of the Lord’s day. 'They called it the first of days, the chief of days, a day of gladness. They honoured it by standing in prayer, and by not fasting. They rose early and sat late, that they might redeem their holy time. Persecution could not cool their ardent regard for “ the Lord’s solemnities.” And Tertullian recommends to tho^e who could not celebrate the day and its worship with sunshine, to meet for that purpose in the night season, which would be “ illumined by the light of Christ.” THE SABBATH IN CENTURIES IY.-XY. The first three centuries of ecclesiastical history furnish the most valuable support to the claims of the weekly holy day. But the subsequent periods are not wanting in scarcely less important aid to the same cause. The history, as it advances, multiplies the tests of prophetic truth relative to the promised preservation, prevalence, and blessings of the institution. We therefore pro- ceed, though necessarily in a somewhat perfunctory manner, with the annals of the Sabbath. THE TEEMS, “ FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK,” “ LORD’S DAY,” AND “ SABBATH.” It has already been stated, that persons of widely different opinions on the question have contended for an exegesis of the above-mentioned names, which militates against the generally re­ ceived doctrine of the Christian Sabbath. Having produced some of the earlier Christian writers as witnesses against such misinter­ pretations, let us confirm their testimony by that of their most distinguished successors. Jerome, who will be admitted to have been no mean proficient in the knowledge of the versions and style, to say the least, of the sacred writings, explains the words, “ the first day of the week,” by the wrords, “ the Lord’s day.”1 1 “ Per unam Sabbati, hoc est, in die dominico.” Quoted by Beza, Annot. in 1 (X*. xvi. 2. ^ n * 3 8 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. In expounding the verse, “ And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,” Chrysostom observes, “ It was then the feast of Pentecost, and the Lord’s day.”1 At a much later time, the venerable Bede interprets the phrase as meaning the same day. “ The Sabbath,” says Augustine, “ is the seventh day, but the Lord’s day, coming after the seventh, must be the eighth, and is also to be reckoned the first. For it is called the first day of the week (una Sabbati).”2 These words while they confirm the general belief in the identity of the time indicated by the first, eighth, and Lord’s day, show that the word Sabbath continues to be made use of when it is necessary to distinguish the first day of the week from the Jewish Sabbath-day. But various Fathers in the fourth century, including Augustine himself, repeatedly apply the word, as Irenseus and Origen had done, to the weekly sacred season of the Christian Church. Instances will occur in subsequent quotations. Let two, meanwhile, suffice. “ We enjoy,” says Hilary, a.d. 354, “ the festivity of a perfect S&bbath on the eighth, which is also the first day of the week.” 3 1 To these accord the words of Gregory Nyssen: “ Behold the Sabbath, blessed for thee from the beginning; mark by that Sabbath, the Sabbath of the present day, the day of rest which God hath blessed above other days.”4 Alexander of Hales might have taken higher ground than that in the following sentence : “ Because the Sabbath-day, taken indeterminately, is called the day of rest, or vacation to God; after this manner the Lord’s day may be called the Sabbath-day, without any prejudice of the Christian name, or scandal of Christians.” 5 W nmb, DOCTRINES. Dr. Paley, proceeding to answer what he calls the main question involved in the controversy on our subject, which is, “ Whether the command by which the Jewish Sabbath was instituted, extend to us ?” says, “ If the Divine command was actually delivered at the Creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revela- 1 Horn, in Acts xx. 7. s In Ps. cL 8 Prol. in Ps. 4 Grot. 38. 8 Cited in Dr. Young’s Dies Dominica, p. 25. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 3 8 3 tion, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it. This opinion precludes all debate about the extent of the obligation.”1 That opinion, or rather truth, of a primal Sabbath, is so trans­ parently presented in the Sacred Volume, as to have gained the general assent of Christian men. We have to include the Fathers of the fourth and following centuries in the number. On this turning point they are at one with each other, and with Tertul- lian, Origen, and Cyprian. Thus writes Lactantius, “ God completed the world, and this admirable work of nature, in the space of six days, and then consecrated the seventh, from which he had rested from his works. This is the Sabbath-day.” 2 Athanasius expresses the conviction, that the things which Moses taught, the same Abraham observed, and Noah understood very well.3 “ The first Sabbath,” says Epiphanius, “ from the begin­ ning decreed and declared by the Lord in the creation of the world, has revolved in its cycle of seven days from that day till, now.” 4 In the preceding section, the words of Gregory Nyssen . to the same effect have been quoted. Augustine, in his City of' God, dates the Sabbath of eternity from the creation of man.5 The intimation of a weekly holy day is, in a sentence afterwards to be produced, regarded by Chrysostom as having been divinely made “ from the beginning.”6 And Theodoret says, “ When God had made all things, instead of creating on the seventh day, He bestowed on it a blessing, lest, of the seven, that day only should be without honour.” 7 As the doctrine continued to pass current down to the sixteenth century, when it was cor­ dially embraced by Luther, Calvin, and the other Reformers, it is unnecessary any further minutely to mark its traces in the history. In the Christian Church, from the fourth to the sixteenth cen­ tury, it was the prevalent belief that the use of the seventh day as a Sabbath was set aside with the dispensation to which it had belonged. Whatever regard was shown to Saturday, the feeling was never among Christians of a kind to compete with their vene­ ration for the Lord’s day. This has been demonstrated in the 1 Mor. Phil, book iv. ch. 7. 8 Divin. Instit. lib. vii. c. 14. 8 De Sab. et Circ. 4 Panar. Hcer. 51. 8 Lib. xxil c. SO. * Horn. 10, in Ge. i Qwest. 21, in Cto. 3 8 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. learned works of Milton’s tutor and Bingham.1 When attachment to the seventh day was tending to the dishonour of the first, the Council of Laodicea interfered to repress the indignity by enacting as follows :— “ Christians ought not to act as Jews, and rest from labour on the Sabbath [Saturday], but should work on that day. And, giving pre-eminent honour to the Lord’s day, they ought then, if they can, to rest from labour.” 2 When it is considered * that the canons of this assembly were received by the Sixth (Ecu­ menical Council into the general law of the Church, it will be allowed that the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath has been an extensively-received doctrine among professed Christians. It is, besides, recognised in subsequent councils, in the legislation of the period, and in the works of the Fathers. No small part of these works are devoted to the overthrow of the synagogue and all its peculiarities. “ The disciples of Christ,” says Epiphanius, when contending against the Ebionites, who kept both the Sab­ bath and the Lord’s day, “ knew very well from his conversation with them, and from his doctrine before his passion, that the Sabbath was discharged.” 3 And both Chrysostom and Theodoret consider “ days,” in these words, “ Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years ; I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain,” as signifying Jewish Sabbaths in con­ tradistinction from the Lord’s day of Christianity.4 But this position will receive further confirmation from the illustration of the following. That the Lord’s day had, by Divine authority, been constituted the weekly day of rest and devotion under Christianity, is another of those doctrines which were generally received in the period urfder review. According to statements of the Fathers already quoted, the cycle of seven days still revolves, and “ God hath blessed the Sabbath of the present day above other days.” Euse­ bius thus writes : “ The Word [Christ], by the new covenant, trans­ lated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the morning light, and gave us the symbol of true rest— the Lord’s day, the first of the light, in which the Saviour obtained the victory over death.”5 1 Dies Dominica, p. 37, etc.; Antiq. D. xx. ch. 3. ■ 3 Can. 29, Concil. per Ruel et Hartman, vol. iii. p. 254. * C ontr. E bion . H x r. xxx. c. 32. * In G al iv. 10. ‘ Com m ent o n Ps. xcL (x c il) CENTURIES IV.-XV. 3 8 5 Referring to our Lord’s appearing to his disciples when they were met together after his resurrection, Cyril draws this conclu­ sion : “ By right, therefore, are holy assemblies held in the churches on the eighth day.” 1 The Lord's day is by Gregory Nazianzen called “ God’s own day.”2 Augustine declares that “ the Lord’s day was established by Christ,” that “ there is one Lord of the Sabbath and of the Lord’s day,” that it is “ called the Lord’s day because the Lord made it,” and that it “ seems pro­ perly to belong to the Lord.” 3 According to Chrysostom, “ God from the beginning intimates to us the doctrine, that within the compass of a week one whole day is to be set apart to spiritual works.”4 In the fifth century, Maximus, Bishop of Turin, Sedu- lius, and Leo i., Bishop of Rome, testify to the same truth. We quote the words of Sedulius :— “ Cceperat interea post tristia Sabbata felix Irradiare dies, culmenque nominis alti A Domino dominante trahit, primusque videre Promeruit nasci mundum, atque resurgere Christum. Septima nam Genesis cym dicit Sabbata, claret Hunc orbis caput esse diem, quern gloria regis Nunc etiam proprii donans fulgore tropasi, Primatum retinere dedit.” 6 The testimonies of writers in the sixth century— of Anastasius Sinaita, Gregory of Tours, and Isidore, Bishop of Seville— har­ monize with the preceding. It is sufficient to quote the last: “ The apostles ordained the Lord’s day to be kept with religious solemnity, because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead, which was therefore called the Lord’s day.6 To a .d . 601, belongs Hesychius, Bishop of Jerusalem, “ author of several productions,” particularly a commentary on Leviticus, in which he says, “ Fol­ lowing their (the apostles’) tradition, we set apart the Lord’s day to Divine assem b liesand expresses the generally received opin­ ion, that the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles wTas the Lord’s day.7 And the venerable Bede, who adorned the eighth century, holds that “ the rest of the seventh day, after six 1 In Joan, lib. xii. c. 53. 3 Horn. 1, in Pasch. 3 Epist. 86, Young’s Dies Demin, p. 71. 4 Horn. 10, in Ge. * De Resur. Carmen, lib. v. * Opera (1617), p. 396 7 In Levit. lib. ii. c. 9. 2 B 386 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. days’ working, was always wont to be celebrated, and that the Lord’s day was the memorial of the Lord’s resurrection.” 1 It was in the ninth century that Charlemagne called five councils for remedying the prevailing disregard of the Lord’s day, with other evils of the Church, and said, in his edict, “ We do ordain, as it is required in the law of God, that no man do any servile work on the Lord’s day,” but that “ all come to the church to magnify the Lord their God for those good things which on this day He bestowed upon them.”2 His son, Louis the Pious, several Popes, Alfred the Great, and Leo the Philosopher, testified, in the same century, to the Divine authority and sacred character of the day. These views, as appears from the writings of Bernard, Theophylact, Anselm, P. Alphonsus, Alexander de Hales, Aquinas, Wycliffe, from the decrees of councils, from the edicts of princes, and the Constitutions of bishops, continued to prevail in the following cen­ turies. Our space will admit of only two or three examples. “ The Lord’s day,” according to Anselm, “ signifies that true rest which He who rose from the dead on the Lord’s day now secures and promises to the saints, and therefore we do rest on that day from labour.” 3 “ The vacation of the Lord’s day,” says the irrefragable doctor, “ is the moral part of the Decalogue in the time of grace, as the seventh day was in the time of the law and again, “ The observance of a day indeterminately, that at some time we should attend on God, is moral in nature and immutable ; but the observance of a determinate time is moral by discipline— by the adding of Divine institution. When that time ought to be, is not for man to determine, but God.”4 We have to add, that the Waldenses and Bohemian Brethren, who bore testimony against the growing errors and corruptions of the Church, acquiesced in her creed as regarded the weekly rest. Thus, in an explanation of the Ten Commandments, dated by Boyer a .d . 1120, the Fourth is held to be the rule of the Lord’s day to Christians.5 The Taborites— the remnant of whom, afterwards joining with a party from the Calixtines, tock the name of Bohemian Brethren— main­ tained that the faithful are not bound to keep any festival but the 1 Beda, Lib. de Offic. * Opera (1612), Enar. in Apoc. i. 10. 5 Blair’s Hist, of Waldenses, vol. i. p. 220. 2 Morer On the herd's Day, p. 261. * Cited in Young’s Dies Domin., p. 46. CENTURIES IV. -XY. 387 Lord’s day.1 After that union, the Brethren took advantage of a respite from persecution, about a .d . 1 4 7 1 , for regulating their government and discipline, when they declared “ the observance of the Sabbath to be of moral obligation ; because the seventh day was sanctified at the Creation, the Ten Commandments enjoined the Sabbath, and in the days of the apostles the Lord’s day was appointed instead of the Jewish Sabbath, and therefore was not ceremonial.”2 PRACTICAL TEACHINGS. On the important subject of the manner in which the Lord’s day ought to be spent, the latter coincide with the earlier opinions of the Christian Church. Eusebius, after mentioning the trans­ ference of the Sabbath and its duties to the first day of the week, observes, “ These duties more appropriately belong to this day, because it has a precedence, is first in rank, and more honourable than the Jewish Sabbath.” He continues, “ It is delivered to us that we should meet together on this day, and it is ordered that we should do those things announced in this Psalm.”3 We see what idea of the sacredness of the day Athanasius entertained, when he described “ a multitude of soldiers with arms, drawn swords, bows, and spears, proceeding to attack the people, though it was the Lord’s day.”* Cyril thus addressed his hearers: “ Manual labour is forbidden on a feast-day, that you may exer­ cise yourselves more entirely in Divine matters.”5 The Council of Laodicea, while they repudiated the regular cessation of work on Saturday, enjoined abstinence from labour on the Lord’s day. In unison with these sentiments is the language of Chrysostom in the following exhortation to his flock : “ You ought not, when you have retired- from the church assembly, to involve yourselves in engagements contrary to the exercises in which you have been occupied, but immediately on coming home read the sacred Scrip­ tures, and call together the family, wife and children, to confer about the things that have been spoken, and after they have been 1 M'Crie’s Miscall. Writings, p. 162. a Blair’s Waldenses, vol. ii. p. 109. * lu Comment, on Ps. xci. (xcii.) * Sister. Tracts (Oxford, 1843), p. 192. 4 Lib. viii. c. 5, in Joan. 3 8 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. more deeply and thoroughly impressed upon the mind, then proceed to attend to such matters as are necessary for this life.”'1" The last clause has, in the absence "of better arguments, been eagerly laid hold of to show that the preacher approved of a return to worldly business after the public and private duties of religion had been discharged. Not to mention the incompatibility of such a recom­ mendation with the moral object aimed at in the homily, if not even with the physical powers of his hearers, Chrysostom has elsewhere stated enough to satisfy us that he had no such meaning. In other passages of his works he says, “ The Lord’s day hath rest and immunity from t o i l s 2 and holds abstinence from worldly affairs on the day to be “ an immovable law.” 3 To these might be added a variety of statements by the Fathers, which imply their convic­ tion that worldly pleasures were to be shunned at the times sacred to heaven. We cite two or three in which that conviction is clearly expressed. “ The sanctification of the Sabbath,” says Gregory Nazianzen, “ consists not in the hilarity of our bodies, nor in the \ ariety of glorious garments, nor in eatings, the fruit whereof we know to be wantonness, nor in strewing of flowers in the way, which we know to be the manner of the Gentiles, but rather in the purity of the soul, and the cheerfulness of the mind, and pious meditations, as when we use holy hymns instead of tabors, and psalms instead of wicked songs and dancings.” 4 Opposed though Augustine was to secular work, he was still more averse to the indulgence of worldly pleasure on the Lord’s day. His saying, “ Ifc is better to plough than to dance,” is well known. It occurs in connexion with a reference to the Jews, as in his time spending their Sabbath in idleness and pleasure : “ They are at leisure for trifles, and spend the Sabbath in such things as God forbids. Our rest is from evil works, theirs from good works. For it is better to plough than to dance.”5 But it was still better, in his view, to abstain from both, and to act in the spirit of his own words, “ Let us show ourselves Christians by keeping holy the Lord’s day.”6 The same spirit breathes in the words of Basil, Gregory Nazian­ zen, and Chrysostom. The Bishop of Caesarea, having given as a 1 Horn. 5, in Matt. 2 Horn. 43, in 1 Cor. xvi. 1. s Horn 5, in Matt. * Quoted by Twisse in Uor. of the Fourth Commandment, p. 173. 5 In Ps. xcii. 8 Ad Casul., Epist. 86. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 3 8 9 reason for the practice of standing in prayer on the Lord’s day, not only that Christians are risen together wTith Christ, but that the day seems in some measure an image of the world to come, adds : “ The Church instructs her disciples to offer their prayers standing, that by being from day to day reminded of the life that will never end, we may not neglect to make provision for the change of habitation.” 1 In a similar spirit writes his friend of Nazianzum : “ But we who worship the Word should find our only pleasure in the Scriptures, in the Divine law, and in narrat­ ing the events relative to the feast.”2 “ The Sabbath,” remarks Chrysostom, “ is not a day of idleness, but of spiritual action.”3 In its duties, as in other things, the weekly holy day has ever been in substance the same institution. The objection, that Moses and Christ had different doctrines, Augustine does not hesitate to re­ pel with the assertion, “ The doctrine was the same, the difference respected only the time.”4 Passing to later centuries, we find that such views continued to be held. Csesarius, Bishop of Arles, rebukes' the impiety of Christians who do not entertain the rever­ ence for the Lord’s day which the Jews appear to have for their Sabbath.” 5 The testimony of Coluinba is specially interesting, as it expresses the feelings of the heart at a moment which tests the sincerity of faith, and the value of a creed : “ This day,” he said to his servant, “ in the Sacred Volume is called the Sabbath, that is, rest; and will indeed be a Sabbath to me, for it is to me the last day of this toilsome life, the day on which I am to rest (sab- batize) after all my labours and troubles, for on this coming sacred night of the Lord (Dominica nocte), at the midnight hour, I shall, as the Scriptures speak, go the way of my fathers.”6 According to Isidore of Spain, “ the observance of the apostolic institution, [ with religious solemnity,” is to “ rest on that day from all earthly acts, and the temptations of the world, that we may apply our­ selves to God’s holy worship, giving this day due honour for the hope of the resurrection we have therein.”7 Aquinas held that “ such a day was appointed not for play, but for praise and prayer.” 8 And in harmony on this subject, with good men of 1 De Spirit. Sanct. c. 27. 2 Orat. 38. 3 De Laz. Cone. 1. 4 Contr. Faust, lib. xvi. c. 28. 3 Horn. 12. 6 Life, by Adamna (1857), p. 2-30. 2 Opera, p. 396. » Opuse. de Prase.', WT."" »" 1 J 3 9 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTOEY. / every age and clime, was Wycliffe, who, in his Exposition of the Decalogue, remarks on the precept concerning the Sabbath-day, that this day should be kept by “ three manners of occupations, ls£, In thinking,— how God is Almighty, All-knowing, All-good, All-just, All-merciful— and thinking, that creation was completed on that day, that Christ rose from the dead on that day, that knowledge and wisdom came to the earth by the descent of the Holy Spirit on that day, and that on that day, as many clerks say, shall be doom’s-day, for Sunday was the first day, and Sunday shall be the last day.” He concludes ah exhortation to his reader, to 'Tr6etfiinklv him of redemption, with the words, “ It should be full sweet and delightful to us, to think thus on this great kindness, and this great love of Jesus Christ.” 2d, In speaking,— speaking in confession of sin to God, in “ crying heartily to God, for grace and power to leave all sin, and ever after to live in virtue,” and in urging neighbours to better living. 3d, In carefully attending public worship,— preparing for it by endeavouring to bring to it pure motives, and by avoiding indulgence in the pleasures of the table, that the mind may be in its best state for performing the duties of the day, and following up the services of the house of God, by visiting the sick and the infirm, and relieving the poor with our goods. “ And so,” he adds, “ men should not be idle, but busy on the Sabbath-day about the soul, as men are on the week-day about the body.” 1 ECCLESIASTICAL MEASUHES. The means employed by the Church in centuries iv.-xv. for restraining the abuse and promoting the observance of the Lord’s day, though liable to exception in several particulars, con­ cur with contemporary writings in showing that the institu­ tion continued to be generally regarded as of Divine appoint­ ment and sacred obligation. Minute detail here would not be necessary, were it practicable. It is sufficient to refer to the leading facts. From a list before us, admitting, probably, of considerable en­ largement, it appears that, during the above-mentioned centuries, ' Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe, pp. 4-6. CENTUEIES IV.-XY. 3 9 1 no fewer than about seventy councils and synods recognised the weekly holy day as a Christian ordinance, most of them adopting canons on its behalf. These conventions extended over the whole period, there having been no century in which some assemblage of the clergy did not express respect for the Lord’s day; and they were spread over the then known world, particularly Europe. They were attended by the most eminent ecclesias­ tics, and from the number as well as from the character of the members, their canons may be considered as among the best means of ascertaining the state of opinion at their respec­ tive dates. To these collective indications of the general doctrine respecting the institution, and to the united measures adopted to promote its better observance, we have to add the services rendered in both respects to its cause by the ministers of re­ ligion in their several charges, by the Fathers, as Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrysostom, and by such men as Ecgbright, Egbert, and Alcuin. Both councils and individuals exerted themselves from time to time to remedy indolent neglect in reference to the Lord s day. The twenty-first canon of the Council of Eliberis (a .d . 305) or­ dained that, for absence from church three successive Lord s days, a layman should be temporarily excluded from communion. In 347, the council of Sardica decreed that no bishop should be per­ mitted to be absent from his church for more than three weeks ; and the Council in Trullo (a .d . 691), combining the two canons, enacted that a clergyman, unnecessarily absent from his own church more than three Lord’s days, should be deposed, and a similarly negligent layman cutoff from communion.1 One great object, indeed, of the councils, and of bishops in their respective spheres, was to secure the attendance of the people in the house of God ; and in their canons and constitutions they sometimes descended to \ 5uch particulars as that the hearers should remain to the close of /the service. Secular labour on the Lord’s day was inhibited. Husbandry \ t Our facta have been derived from several works on the councils; hut to save a multitude of references, we may state, that in Neale’s Feasts and Fasts, and JJ°rero» the Lord's Day, may he found the chief heads of what relates to our subject, w itnB e fitoiJtB r"”' 392 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. in its various operations, all mechanical works, merchandise, and unnecessary travelling, were forbidden. Legal proceedings must “ cease and determine.” No folkmote or political assembly must hold. Marriages were not to be solemnized, criminals were not to be executed. In a word, persons, of whatever country or quality, were required to forbear servile work, that they might have leisure for the worship of God. Worldly amusements, moreover, were condemned. We meet with frequent denunciations against the exhibitions and encourage­ ment of theatrical shows and dancings, as well as against hunting and various pastimes, on the sacred day. When the Bulgarians sent questions on this and other matters to Pope Nicholas, in a.d. 858, his reply was, “ That they should desist from all secular work and carnal pleasure, or whatever contributed to 'defile the body ; and do nothing but what was suitable to the day.” Dun- stan, Archbishop of Canterbury, did himself honour by issuing a special order, that “ King Edgar should not continue to hunt on the Lord’s day.” Such things were enjoined as included or furthered the positive duties of the day. Instruction by regularly officiating incumbents in churches, or, in their indispensable absence, by substitutes, was provided. All vicars were required, even at so late a time in mediaeval history as 1360, to read the word of God to the people in their own language. Repeatedly do we find more frequent communicating urged as a means of promoting Sabbatic observ­ ance. With the same view, councils defined the time of holy rest, and exhorted the people to be present at the public worship of Saturday. One peculiar arrangement was, that “ the arch­ deacon, or some other dignitary, should take special care that all prisoners, every Lord’s day, might be well relieved in what their necessities called for.” The following is a specimen of a synodi­ cal decree on the manner of observing the day. The bishops assembled at Friuli, in Italy, thus resolved : “ That all people shall with due reverence and devotion honour the Lord’s day, beginning on the evening of the day before, and that thereon they more especially abstain from all kinds of sin, as also from all carnal acts, and secular labours : and that they go to church in a grave manner, laying adde all suits of law and controversies, which might hinder their praising God’s name to­ gether.” The good men of those days were urgent, if not always wise, in the arguments and inducements employed by them for the ac­ complishment of their object. In not a few instances they pro­ perly confined themselves to their own spiritual province, the ad­ ministration of the truth, law, and discipline of Christ. But in too many others, they called in the help of the weapons that are car­ nal. Pecuniary fines were exacted. The man who used his cattle in customary work forfeited an ox or a team. Stripes constituted, in certain cases, the punishment of the Sabbath-breaker. Nay, the partial loss of patrimony, and degradation to slavery, were in­ flicted according to circumstances. These were mistaken awards of clergy and councils to the violaters of Christian institutions and laws. But the men -who thus punished offenders, proved at least their conviction of the enormity of the offence. It is more pleas­ ant to mark “ the more excellent way” of religious argument and appeal, when the authorities refer the people to “ the law of God,” as demanding the sanctification of the Lord’s day, when they en­ treat their observance of it by a regard to “ the reverence and rest of the Lord’s resurrection,” when they remind them of the Divine example, and when, with Bishop Riculphus, they complain “ That- some people made no conscience of going to market, and doing such other things on the Lord’s day as all laws human and Divine forbade them to do,” and like him decree, that “ All imaginable care shall be taken to redress and put a stop to those ungodly courses, as being a great folly and shame, that any Chris­ tian should so overlook the day which is the memorial of Christ’s resurrection, and our redemption by him, and so eagerly pursue his worldly gain at a time when he ought to be employed in holy offices for God’s honour, and the good of his own soul, and theirs belonging to him.” Nor was it forgotten to warn Christians against a formal and superstitious Sabbatism. While they were to abstain from rural works, and this world’s and tjieir own pleasures, “ they were to be filled with spiritual joys, and busily vacant with all their heart in unwearied praises.” When some had conceived that no work whatever was to be done, they were reminded that it was lawful CENTURIES IY.-XY. 3 9 3 3 9 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTOEY. to ride, to dress victuals, and to do what concerned the neat­ ness of the body or of the house. How remote from superstition and mere form, and yet how true and just the representation of Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans : “ Such is the sanctity of the Lord’s day, that nothing should be done in it except religious and neces­ sary exercises ; for if liberty be given of sailing and travelling, it* must only be in cases of necessity, and so as not to interfere with public worship. Every Christian should go to the house of God, early and late, and avoid improper conversation on the way. We should have leisure only for God, in holy exercises and bene­ volence, and in the praises of the Lord with our friends. As for our feasting, it is to be spiritual with our neighbours and with strangers.” LEGISLATION. In March, a .d . 321, Constantine issued a decree that all should rest on the venerable day of the Sun, with the exception of those engaged in husbandry, who were allowed to attend to the work of their calling. In June of the same year he renewed the order, with the additional exception, of such actions as concerned the libe ration of prisoners, and the manumission of slaves. The Lord’s, day was to be consecrated to prayer. Christian soldiers were allowed freely to frequent the churches, and there without moles­ tation offer up their prayers to God. Others of the army “ who had not tasted the sweetness of Divine knowledge,” he com­ manded to repair to the fields, and join together in acts of devo­ tion. He even prescribed a form of prayer, which he required all his soldiers to use on the first day of the week, and in their daily worship. Governors of provinces were instructed to observe the Lord’s day. All were likewise enjoined to honour other holidays and feasts of the Church ; but the same abstinence from labour was not made imperative on such occasions. It may in this place be remarked, that important evidence in favour of the institution can be extracted from edicts of the civil powers, as also from the canons of councils, while both may have been connected with objectionable measures. When Constantine could not be neutral as to the Lord’s day— when for him not to CENTUEIES IY.-XV. 3 9 5 hold and obey the Sabbatic law must have involved the rejection and transgression of a Divine commandment, and the refusal of a provision essential to the well-being of the empire— it was right and good that he determined to recognise and protect the weekly holy day. But this proceeding on his part, and as followed in other cases, may be pleaded as a strong testimony to the value and necessity of the institution, by those who hold that the magis­ trate has no right to sanction holy days of human appointment, to permit agricultural or other secular labour on the day of rest and worship, or to compel his subjects to perform those devotional services which lie out of the legitimate reach and power of civil authority. Constantine died in a .d . 337. After the intervening reigns of his three' sons, his nephew, Julian, ascended the throne, and pro­ ceeded to restore idolatry. Even he, as we have had repeated occasion tb remark, gave evidence, however unwittingly, in favour of Christianity afld its weekly holy day, by introducing into his Pagan system improvements borrowed from the Christian worship. The following emperors— Yalentinian, Gratian, Valentinian n., and Honorius, in the west, with Yalens, Theodosius the Great, Arcadius, Theodosius i l , in the east— issued edicts, designed re­ spectively to prohibit certain law proceedings, and to put an end to theatrical exhibitions on the Lord’s day. In one of these laws the words occur, “ the day of the sun, which our fathers rightly called the Lord’s day.” From another we cite the following sentence : “ Nor let any man think himself obliged in honour and reverence to us ”— when the anniversaries of his birth and 'accession to the throne happened to fall on such days— “ to neglect the sacred religion and business of the day, and apply himself to public diversions ; for let him not doubt, that we look upon ourselves as then best served and honoured when the excellencies of the great God and his mercies to mankind are most devoutly celebrated.” The Emperors Leo and Anthemius (a .d . 460) prohibited worldly pleasures, as well as law proceed­ ings, on the Lord’s day, under the penalty that the offender, if having a place under government, should lose it, and forfeit his estate. There followed enactments by Theodoric the Great, seve­ ral kings of France, Ina, king of the West Saxons, and Withred, 3 9 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. king of Kent, all having for their object to prevent the desecra­ tion of the day of rest by secular business or labour. Charle­ magne, benefiting by the advice of Alcuin, evinced special zeal in calling councils for the reformation of abuses connected with the Lord’s day ; and it is worthy of remark that, though he punished the disturbers of worship with death, he on several occasions affixed no penalty to the neglect of religious ordinances or to the desecration of sacred time,'leaving these offences to be dealt with by the ecclesiastical power. In his edict calling five councils, in a .d . 813, he has these words : “ We ordain, as it is required in the law of God, that no man do any servile work on the Lord’s day,”— of which a variety of examples are given,— but that men and women “ come all to the church to magnify the Lord their God for those good things which bn this day he bestowed on them.” His son, Louis the Pious, walked in his steps ; and, aware how much depended on the example of persons in superior station, put forth the following decree : “ It is necessary that, in the first place, priests, kings, and princes, and all the faithful, should most devoutly exhibit a due observance and reverence of this day.” Alfred the Great was the ornament of the closing years of the ninth century, as Charlemagne was the distinction of its com­ mencement, and of the latter part of the preceding. One of his laws, in 87 6, while appointing penalties for offences on the Lord’s day and certain holidays, declared that “ among the festivals, this day ought more especially to be solemnly kept, because it was the day wherein our Saviour, Christ, overcame the devil.” In the same centuiy was issued the well-known edict of the Emperor Leo, “ the Philosopher,” which, after mentioning that the Lord’s day was to be honoured with rest from labour, and that he had seen a law (Constantine’s) which, restraining some works but permit­ ting others, did dishonour to the day, proceeds as follows : “ It is our will and pleasure, according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, and of the apostles by Him directed, that on that sacred day, whereon we were restored to our integrity, all men should rest themselves and cease from labour, neither the husbandman nor others putting their hand that day to prohibited work. For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath, which was only CENTURIES IY.-XV. 3 9 7 a shadow of ours, are not we, who inhabit light and the truth of grace, obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured, and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death ? Are not we hound to keep it singularly and inviolably, sufficiently contented with a liberal grant of all the rest, and not encroaching on that one which God hath chosen for his service 1 Nay, were it not a reckless slighting and contemning of all reli­ gion to make that day common, and think we may do thereon as we do on others l ”1 Athelstan and Edgar, Edward the Elder, and the Emperor Otho, in the tenth century; Ethelred, Canute, and Edward the Confessor, in the eleventh ; Manuel Comnenus and Henry il, in the twelfth ; the Parliament at Scone and Henry hi., in the thirteenth; Edward hi. in the fourteenth ; and Henry vi., with Edward rv., in the fifteenth,— are all recorded to have employed their authority to maintain the observance of the weekly rest. An order issued in the fifteenth century by Catworth, the Lord Mayor of London, in concurrence with the Common Council, was more worthy of the cause than some royal decrees. Refer­ ring only to the Lord’s day, it required “ that ho manner of com­ modities be within the freedom bought or sold on Lord’s days, neither provision nor any other thing; and that no artificer should bring his ware unto any man to be worn or occupied that day.” ASCENDENCY. The history of Christendom, from the beginning of the fourth to the close of the fifteenth century, presents a variety of facts illustrative of the peculiar importance which continued to be attached to the first day of the week. One of the evidences.of this feeling is discovered in certain things which were to be done on that day. If the Church made too much of the circumstance of posture in prayer, her insisting that on the Lord’s day her members should stand up in perform­ ing the duty, proved the honour in which the day was held as a memorial of a completed and accepted redemption. Early in the , fourth century (a .d . 306), Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, informs us, that the Christians did not kneel in prayer on the Lord’s day, as 1 Heylyn’s Hist, of the Sab., Part ii. p. 140. 18 3 9 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. that was a day of rejoicing, because on it Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.1 The celebrated Council of Nice ( a .d . 325), at­ tended by no fewer than 318 bishops, and by Athanasius, pro­ nounced against kneeling in prayer on that day. This, too, was eminently and usually the day of the communion. It was also the day on which Easter was, after some time, universally celebrated, as well as the sentence of excommunication pronounced. Another token of special respect for the first day of the week, is to be found in the exclusion of certain other things from the services of the day. Abstinence from labour came to be required on holidays as well as on the Lord’s day; but it is worthy of notice, that this practice was not enjoined by any eastern law for the first seven centuries, though in the west it was otherwise.2 Fasting, which, so far as we have observed, was not forbidden to be practised on holidays, and was excluded from Saturdays in the east, though required in the west, was held to be dishonouring to the Lord’s day, and frequently declared to involve the severest censures of the Church. The guilty person, if a clergyman, was to be deposed,— if a layman, to be excommunicated. “ Let him,” it is said “ be anathema.” The west and east agreed in except­ ing the Lord’s days from the period of fasting, whatever might be its length.3 Litanies, also, fixed for a particular day, were deferred when that day was a Sunday. We see in the preparations that were to be made for the proper observance of the day, how sacredly it was regarded. Thus, in a Council at Croy, in Spain, it was agreed that ‘all Christians should be admonished every Saturday evening to go to church by way of preparation for the Lord’s day.” Directions are repeat­ edly given to begin the observance of the day on the previous evening. Kings and councils, in a number of instances, decreed that the weekly rest should extend from noontide of Saturday to Monday morning. The manifold and persevering exertions put forth for the up­ holding and observance of the weekly holy day, declare the esteem in which it was. held. It employed, we have seen, the care of many councils and synods. The dignitaries of the Chupch were 1 Dupin’s Eccl. Writers, vol. ii. p. 26. a Neale’s Feasts and Fasts, p. 101. »im . p. 3ii. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 3 9 9 often engaged in framing canons for its better observance. Authors commended it to their readers. The pulpit poured out eloquent tributes to its excellence, and urgent appeals on its behalf. Princes and inferior magistrates acknowledged its Divine claims, and felt its value as a beneficent institution. That was regarded as no common or trifling matter, for the neglect and contempt of which men were deposed from the ministry, expelled from the church, subjected to corporal chastisement, deprived of patrimony, or re­ duced to serfdom. And we have to add, that the resort to more remarkable, if less injurious measures in the cause, was significant of the importance supposed to belong to it. The story of an ap­ parition said to be seen by Henry n. of England, and charging him to have no servile work done throughout his dominions on the Lord’s day, except what concerned the provision of meat and drink, that so he might succeed in all his affairs, and of his mis­ fortunes in consequence of neglecting the mandate, has a meaning and use to the extent of indicating the opinion, that the day was the charge of Heaven, and that its sacred observance was con­ nected with human prosperity and happiness. The same lesson is taught by the case of Eustachius, Abbot de Flay, in the follow­ ing century. This ardent person preached from city to city, and from place to place, throughout England, forbidding the holding of markets on the first day of the week. Many entered into his views, but their undue zeal in overturning the booths and stalls of those who persisted in the practice, led the king and council to cite and fine them for disorderly proceedings. The Abbot, then, produced what he called a mandate from Heaven for the strict ob­ servance of the Lord’s day, in which various calamities were de­ nounced on those who did not keep that day and the festivals of the saints. The same warrant was produced and read in a Scot­ tish Council of a .d . 1203, when the King, with consent of his Parliament, passed it into a law, that Saturday from noon was to be counted holy, and that the people were to engage in holy actions, going to sermons and the like, from that time till Monday morning, or be subjected to a penalty. It appears, however, that a relaxation of this law, so far as regarded fishing, was made by Alexander in. in a Parliament at Scone in 1214, and confirmed afterwards by James I., the prohibition of such work being limited 400 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. to the time between the evening of Saturday and sunrise of Monday. We have been pleading certain facts as, notwithstanding the enthusiasm and other evils mixed up with them, contributing to prove that the Sabbatic institution has a testimony in the heart even of a degenerate Christian society. And we will take the liberty of making use of another fact for the same purpose. Holidays have no warrant in Scripture, and have contributed sadly to foster superstition and immorality. And yet, usurpers though they are of Sabbatic rights, and detrimental to Sabbatic objects, they had their origin in the recognised authority and felt benefit of the only true holy day. It was in the more advanced stage of human festivals and feasts that a class arose, who made use of them for upholding despotism and an overbearing hierarchy, and for attempting the subversion of the Lord’s day. In the earlier days of the Church, Christians, desirous of recalling the various facts in a religion which they reverenced and loved, and finding spiritual profit and pleasure in the duties of a stated season of worship, sought, in the multiplication of memorial times, and of their attendant devotions, to do honour to the birth, death, and ascension, as had been done to the resurrection of Christ, and to augment their own spiritual advantage and pleasure. This was well meant, but it involved the great error of being wise above what is written— the evil of being righteous overmuch. It was a testimony, however, to the heavenly and good institution, as the counterfeit is to the genuine and valuable coin. The doctrine of Divine judgments, as attending the violation of Divine laws, has frequently been supposed to be the peculiarity, and merited reproach of the Puritans. The history of the Church, however, reveals it as a doctrine of Fathers, Prelates, and even of Popes. It was held by Gregory of Tours.1 Pope Eugenius, ob­ serving that certain persons, especially women, spent their time in dancing and singing, gave directions to a Synod, held, about a .d . 826, at Rome, “ That the parish priest should from time to time admonish such offenders, and desire them to go to church and offer prayers, lest otherwise they might bring some great calamity on themselves and others.” The Pope had a conviction 1 Heylyn’s Hist, of the Sab., Part ii. pp. 113,114. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 401 that the neglect of Divine institutions exposed men to disasters. Nor was the conviction rare. At a Provincial Council held at Paris, about a .d . 829, under Louis and Lotharius, Emperors, the prelates complained that the Lord’s day was not kept with the re­ verence becoming religion and the practice of their forefathers; “ which,” they add, “ was the reason that God had sent several judgments on them, and in a very remarkable manner punished some people' for slighting and abusing it.” In confirmation of this statement, they refer to cases known to many of them, and heard* of by others, of several countrymen following their husbandry on this day, who had been killed with lightning, or had miserably per­ ished under convulsions, “ whereby it is apparent how high the displeasure of God was upon their neglect of this day.” We ad­ duce these views and instances, not as showing that profanation of the Lord’s day is sometimes visited with remarkable expressions of the Divine wrath, though of this position there is ample proof, but as another evidence of the solemn importance which, in the times to which the facts belong, was attached to the institution. We have to mention the language in which the Lord’s day is spoken of as yet another proof of our position. The frequent ap­ plication to the first day of the week, in the writings and enact­ ments of the time, of such expressions as “ the venerable day of the sun,” “ the chief of the festivals,” “ the feast of feasts,” “ the beginning of our life,” “ the primate,” “ the queen,” “ the first and chief” of days, “ the regal day,” “ the day which is better than all other days, common or festive,” evinces the high and peculiar regard which was entertained for the sacred season. The Emperors Leo and Anthemius speak of the Lord’s day as “ ever honourable and worthy of veneration and'Alfred the Great, we have seen, declares, in a law on the subject, that among the festi­ vals the Lord’s day more especially ought to be solemnly kept, because it was the day wherein our Saviour, Christ, overcame the devil. It is the “sacred day,” says Leo the Philosopher, “where­ on we were restored to our integrity,— the day which the Lord honoured by rescuing us from the captivity of death,” the day “ which God hath named for his service, and which it were a reckless slighting and contemning of all religion to make common.” 2 o 402 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. OBSERVANCE. Of the means employed in the period of our present survey for securing honour and respect to the Lord’s day, more is recorded than of the successful results. It would be wrong, however, to draw the conclusion, that the measure of practical regard to the institution is to be estimated by the space which it occupies in history. “ It is not necessaiy, that those things which are con­ stantly done should be noted in history, but those things which are rarely done.” The preaching, writings, and other labours of such men as Athanasius, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine must, among their happy effects, have been instrumental in form­ ing many to so essential a character as that of willing subjection to the Fourth Commandment. The diligence and zeal of councils in prosecuting the same object could not be in vain. But when the eminent Fathers of the fourth and beginning of the fifth cen­ tury disappeared from the scene, so many impediments to the ad­ vance of Sabbath profanation were removed. The spirit, which in other times made that day to be a delight, gave way to one which regarded it as a form and a burden ; and the new appliances of fines and bodily chastisement to restrain its abuse, showed that open violation and slothful neglect of the sacred rest had become more prevalent. One token of good, however, was the desire shown throughout the sixth century to stay the progress of the evil. The succession of efforts employed for this purpose by twenty councils, and the views of the institution entertained, proved how excellent it is in itself, and how it commends itself to the reason and convictions of mankind. In the following century, we have accounts of‘the general observance of the day one of them by Cummianus, an Irish Abbot or Bishop, of the year 640, and another by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, both in the same terms. “ On the Lord’s day,” says the latter, in his Poeni- te n tia l, “ the Greeks and Romans neither sail nor ride on horse­ back ; they do not make bread, nor travel in a carriage, except to church only, nor do they bathe.” The Emperor Charlemagne hav­ ing been desired by the clergy to provide for the stricter observa­ tion of the day, “ he accordingly did so, and left no stone unturned to secure its honour, and restrain his subjects from abusing it. His care succeeded, and during his reign the Lord’s day bore a considerable figure. But after his decease it put on another face.”1 This relapse, however, served to rouse the friends of the institu­ tion to greater exertion. Councils were convened at Paris and Aken (Auchen, Aix la Chapelle). Bishop Jona and others set themselves against the evil. And when we take into account, also, the efforts of Leo, the Philosopher, and Alfred the Great, we are not surprised at the remark of an historian as respects Christen­ dom generally in the ninth century : “ We are now prepared to allow that there is considerable truth in the statement, that during the contests concerning image-worship, society was strict in all religious observances, and great attention was paid to Sunday.”2 It was a part of the creed of the Waldenses, “ that the observa­ tion of the Sabbath, by ceasing from worldly labours and from sin, by good works, and by promoting the edification of the soul through prayer and hearing the word, is enjoined” in the law of God.3 We are furnished with information respecting their morals by Reinerus Sacco, an apostate from their church, and a Jacobin inquisitor, who wrote a book against them about 1254, and whose testimony is above suspicion. Besides mentioning, “ that they work on feast days, and disregard the fasts of the Church, dedications, and benedictions,” and referring to their churches and schools, he says, “ They are composed and modest in manners. They do no| multiply riches, but are content with necessaries. They are also chaste, especially the Leonists. They are temperate in eating and drinking. They do not go to taverns, nor to danc­ ings, nor to other vanities. They restrain themselves from anger. . . . They avoid scurrility, detraction, levity of conversation, lying and swearing.”4 We may conceive what their deportment on the first day of the week would be, from the circumstance, that, when a barbe or minister was appointed, an oath was adminis­ tered to him before the assembled barbes, in this form, “ Thou, such a one, swearest on thy faith to maintain, multiply, and in­ crease our law, and not to discover the same to any in the world, and that thou promisest not in any manner to swear by God, and that thou observe the Lord’s day, and that thou wilt not 3 Blair’s Waldenses, vol. i. p. 220. * Ibid. vol. i. pp. 408, 412. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 403 1 Morer On the Lord’s Day, pp. 270, 271. 3 Finlay’s Byzan. Empire, vol. L p. 311. do anything to thy neighbour which thou wouldst not have him to do to thee, and that thou dost believe in God who has made the sun and moon, the heaven and the earth, the cherubim and seraphim, and all that thou seest.”1 The practice of the Bohemian Brethren in relation to the Chris­ tian weekly holy day, which, we have already seen, they held to be appointed instead of the Jewish Sabbath, was the following : “ The brethren rested from all secular employments. Their do­ mestics and cattle also rested. They strictly avoided drunkenness, gambling, dancing, idle conversation, lounging, and the like ; and spent the day in singing God’s praise, reading the Bible, and attend­ ing four or five services at church.” 2 Besides several days for com­ memorating events in the history of Christ, and others relating to Mary, the Apostles, and the martyrs, but on which every one after the public services returned to his work, they kept fasts four times a year, and on occasions of remarkable calamities, or of the ex­ clusion of an individual from the Church.3 They made a distinc­ tion between the Sabbath and the other days ; the former being considered by them as of inviolable obligation, the others observed with Christian liberty, for recalling important facts, and for giv­ ing opportunities of useful admonition, that, “ after preaching and prayers are over, they may apply themselves to their ordinary works as on other days.”4 From the facts set forth in this and two preceding, sections, it appears that for fifteen centuries the first day of the week was, under various names, recognised throughout Christendom as a divinely-appointed day of worship and sacred rest; that it was re­ garded as the old ordinance of paradise and Sinai, adapted by extrinsic changes to the New Economy ; and that many writings, canons, edicts, and other measures, attested the concern of good men for its observance, and their conviction of its high dignity and excellence. It is not necessary to the evidence for the Sabbath, which the history of that long period supplies, that the language used respecting it, the measures employed on its be­ half, and the performance of its duties, should have been immacu­ late. There have been writers— Dr. Heylyn, for example— who 1 Blair’s Waldenses, vol. ii. p. 157. 8 Ibid. p. 110. 4 0 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 109. * Brace’s An. Secul. p. 202. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 4 0 5 have subjected this evidence to a process of disingenuous, unjust, and naughty criticism, which shows a disposition to bear down rather than to discover truth, and under which, as generally ap­ plied, no document, no testimony, no man on trial for life, no inter­ est, however important, could be safe. The marvel is, that amidst the growing corruption of a great part of that period, there was such a unanimity of opinion respecting the Lord’s day, and that the day did not cease to exist. Nor let it be said that the pre­ vailing evil betrayed any inefficiency in the ordinance. From two causes at least— from endlessly multiplying holidays, which ob­ scured its authority; and diluted its strength, and from the ever increasing neglect and perversion .of its essential agencies of instruc­ tion and worship— it was not allowed its full and proper influence. In all cases in which the Sabbath has been dissociated from en ­ feebling, demoralizing festivals of human device, and been joined to its natural allies of sound religious instruction, and a simple, pure worship, it has evinced itself to be the power of God in stemming the tide of error and immorality, and in making com­ munities pious, virtuous, and happy. And that must be a mighty institute which has been found to live and bless mankind under manifold disadvantages, and which, in the case before us, crippled though it was, not only maintained its ground amidst such ele­ ments of destruction, but for so long a time prevented the entire overthrow of the religious and social edifice. THE SABBATH AT THE REFORMATION. In the controversy respecting a weekly hojy day, parties have eagerly sought support for their respective opinions in the writings of the Reformers. These eminent men have, on the one hand, been represented as holding the common creed of Christians on the sub­ ject, although it is admitted that their language in several instances is not in seeming accordance with such views, and have, on the other, been considered as denying the Divine obligation of a stated day of sacredness and rest. Of late years scarcely a volume or tract in defence of the latter notion has appeared, which has not “ bristled” with the names of Luther and Calvin as the advocates -of liberty from all Sabbatarian impositions. Much, indeed, as 18* 4 0 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. Luther, Calvin, and their associates, are entitled to our admiration for then* learning, piety, and zeal, and to our gratitude for the services which they rendered to all the interests of mankind, it must be recollected that their sentiments do not on this or on any other point amount to a test of truth. It is not, however, incon­ sistent with the great principle, that no man is our master in such matters, to feel a desire to have the sanction of the Reformers for our interpretation of the sacred oracles. The friends of the Sab­ bath, in particular, would be gratified by the persuasion, that such men had vindicated for themselves a place in the “ great cloud of witnesses” for the Divine origin, perpetual sacredness, and indis­ pensable value of that blessed institution. Let us, thetefore, in­ quire what were the views on this subject of the distinguished persons by whose instrumentality our deliverance from Papal bondage was accomplished. The following remarks and illustrations will, we trust, present in a just light the views of the Reformers on the subject of the Sabbatic institution :— 1. They regarded the weekly day of rest and worship as a most reasonable, useful, and indispensable arrangement. In the Con­ fessions of Augsburg, Saxony, and Helvetia, we find such expres­ sions as these applied to the institution : “ It was requisite to appoint a certain day, that the people'might know when to come together.”1 “ Natural reason doth know that there is an order; and the understanding of order is an evident testimony of God; neither is it possible that men should live without any order, as we see that in families there must be distinct times of labour, rest, meat, and sleep; and every nature, as it is best, so doth it chiefly love order throughout the whole life.”2 “ Although religion be not tied unto time, yet it cannot be planted and exercised without a due dividing and allotting out of time unto it........... Except some due time and leisure were allotted to the outward exercise of reli­ gion, without doubt men would be quite drawn from it by their own affairs.” 3 These passages teach us that the Lutheran and Reformed Churches were agreed as to the propriety, and the ne­ cessity to the ends of religion, of certain times being set apart for its exercises and study. The Reformers individually apply these 1 Hall’s Harmony of Confessions, p. 401. s Ibid. p. 402. 8 Ibid. p. 382. THE REFORMATION. 4 0 7 principles to specific seasons. Thus Luther says, “ It is good and even necessary that men should keep a particular day in the week, on which they are to meditate, hear, and learn, for all cannot com­ mand every day ; and nature also requires that one day in the week should be kept quiet, without labour either for man or beast.”1 On two occasions we find him utter his earnest desire for the aboli­ tion of holidays, and on both, with the express exception of the “ Dies Dominicus." 2 On the worth and absolute need of the weekly Sabbath, Calvin is still more explicit. It is as requisite now as it ever was : “ While the day has ceased as the figure of a spiritual and important mystery, there are other and different ends for which it is set apart; and in respect of the duty of resting from all earthly cares and employments, and applying to spiritual exer­ cises in public and private, the necessity of a Sabbath is common to us with the people of old.”3 The observance of it comprises in it all religion : “ Under the observance of the Sabbath is com­ prehended the sum of all piety.” 4 The neglect of it indicates the destitution and the contempt of Christian blessings : “ And hereby it appears what affection we have towards all Christianity, and towards the serving of God, seeing we make that thing an occa­ sion of withdrawing ourselves further off from God, which is given us as a help to bring us nearer unto him ; and be we once gone astray, it serveth to pull us quite and clean away— and is not that a devilish spite of men ?”8 .Such neglect not only is an act of in­ dignity to religion, but renders every part of it ineffectual and value­ less : “ He who setteth at nought the Sabbath-day, has cast under foot all God’s service, as much as is in him ; and if the Sabbath-day be not observed, all the rest shall be worth nothing.” 6 The obser­ vance of it, on the other hand, brings happiness to the individual, and secures protection to the state. “ The Sabbath, or rest of God— le repos de Dieu,— is not idleness, but true perfection, which brings along with it a calm state of peace.”7 “ The city will be safe, if God be truly and devoutly worshipped, and this is attested by the sanctification of the Sabbath.”8 We add the words of 1 Quoted in Fairbaim’s Typol., VoL.ii. p. 467. 3 Comment on Exod. xx. 8-11. 5 Ser. 34 on Deut. v. 7 On John v. 17. 3 See p. 17 of this vol, note 4. * Comment, on Exod. xvi. 28. 8 On Dent. v. Ser. 34. 3 On Jer. xvii. 4 0 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. Bucer : “ It must needs be a very great contempt of God, not to bestow one day in the whole week in the knowing and serving of our Creator, of whom we have received ourselves and all things else that we enjoy.” 1 2. The sacred observance of the first day of the week was a duty which the leaders of the Beformation were careful to enforce. “ Farel’s first experiments in discipline,” as Dr. Henry informs us, “ had proved very distasteful. Among the things forbidden were games of chance, swearing, slandering, dancing, the singing of idle songs, and masquerading. The people were commanded to attend church, to keep Sunday strict, and to be at home by nine o’clock in the evening. These laws were proclaimed with the sound of a trumpet, and with threats of severe punishment against trans­ gressors. Four preachers and two deacons were appointed, and a school was established. Farel published a short formulary of belief, consisting of twenty-one articles, and was probably asso­ ciated in this with Calvin, who published a catechism in French.” 2 What a disciplinarian Calvin was, and how he laboured by un­ wearied preaching and writing to enlighten and reform the Gene­ vese, while on him “ came the care of all the churches,” we need not say. But he has not received the credit due to him as a friend of the Sabbath. Partial extracts from his notices of the subject have been industriously circulated, while care has not been shown to set forth such passages as the following : “ It is for us to dedicate ourselves wholly to God, renouncing our feelings and all our affections ; and then, since we have this external ordinance, to act as becomes us, that is, to lay aside our earthly affairs, so that we may be entirely free to meditate on the works of God.” 3 “ The Sabbath is the bark of a spiritual substance, the- use of which is still in force, of denying ourselves, of renouncing all our own thoughts and affections, and of bidding farewell to one and all of our own employments, so that God may reign in us, then of employing ourselves in the worship of God.”4 “ Every man,” he remarks, as a reason why Christians should not go to law upon the Lord’s day, 11 ohght to withdraw himself from everything but the consideration of God and His works, that all men may be 1 On Ps. xcil. * lift and Tines of John Calvin, vol. i. p. 112. * Ser. 34, Kent. r. * m i THE REFORMATION. 4 0 9 stirred up to serve and honour Him.” 1 And as he excludes secular labour, so also worldly recreations : “ If we employ the Lord’s day to make good cheer, to sport ourselves, to go to games and pastimes, shall God in this be honoured ] Is it not a mockery ] Is not this an unhallowing of his name 1 ”2 Peter Viret, his col­ league, was like-minded : “One end of bodily rest on the Sabbath,” he says, “ is that men might attend upon the ministry and service of God in the church, and that we might meditate upon the works of God, and be occupied in the duties of charity to our neigh­ bours.” 3 The friend of Calvin, as well as of Luther, Bucer, re­ ferring to the service of God as required on the Lord’s day above all others, gives utterance to these earnest words : “ Let our man­ ners' show it, let the holiness of our lives testify to it, let our works prove it ; for who will believe that he has been present at the assemblies of the Church, and has heard the word of God with a sincere heart and a true faith, who bestows the remainder, not only of that day, but of his life ; not only more vainly, but more wickedly]”4 Zuinglius, Bullinger, who succeeded him in his pastoral charge, (Ecolampadius, Peter Martyr, and Zanchius, have written to the same effect. Thus also taught Luther and his friends. “Although the Sabbath,” Luther says, “ is now abolished, and the conscience is freed from it, it is still good and even neces­ sary, that men should keep a particular day in the week for the sake of the word of God, on which they are to meditate, hear, and learn, for all cannot command every day ; and nature also requires that one day in the week should be kept quiet, without labour either for man or beast.” 5 Even when, in the vehemence of his zeal against a return to Judaical observance, he rashly orders persons to trample on the institution rather than pervert it in that form, he does not forget to say, “ Keep it holy for its use’ sake, both to body and soul.” 6 In treating of the Third [Fourth] Commandment, Melanchthon mentions, among the breaches of it, the neglect of the public ministry of the church. Bucer says, “ It is our duty to sanctify one day in each week for the public service of religion : that there be one day in the week on which the people may have nothing else to do than to go to church, there 1 Ser. 93 on Dent. v. * Ser. 34 on Deut. v. 8 On Fourth Commandment. 4 In Matt. xii. li. 5 Fairbairn, as before. 4 Coleridge’s Table Talk, ii 815. 4 1 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. to hear G-od’s word, to pour out their prayers, to confess their faith, to give thanks, to make oblations, and to receive the holy communion : hence the Lord’s day was consecrated to these by the very apostles.”1 Let us add Chemnitz, who, though he belongs to a later time, was an able and learned expounder of Lutheran doctrine, and has been brought forward against us. In his view, “ the Sabbath is violated chiefly by those who abuse that time of rest unto pleasures, lightness, surfeiting, drunkenness, and all other kind of wickedness ; whereby it cometh to pass, that commonly God is upon no day more offended than upon those which are specially appointed unto his worship and service.”2 And again, “ Christ by his example doth show how the time between the public assemblies ought to be devoted to spiritual improvement, for after he had taught in public, and the assembly was dismissed, he privately examined and further instructed his disciples.” 3 These last words remind us ^hat the Eeformers, like the Fathers and all “ good Christians,” regarded the Lord’s day as lasting beyond the hours of public worship, as having the same extent with any other day, and as a day to be sanctified throughout. “ Let us bear in mind,” says Calvin, “ that this day is not appointed for us only to come to the sermon, but that we might employ the rest of the time in praising G o d a n d , as he after­ wards remarks, “ in digesting the good doctrine, that by this means we. may be so formed and fashioned as that during the week it may cost us nothing to raise our hearts to God.” 4 3. The lessons which the Eeformers taught on this subject were by them and by their flocks conscientiously practised. We have seen no account of Luther’s more private deportment on the day of rest; but, from the character of the man, and from his more deliberate utterances regarding the sacredness and importance of the institution, we may presume that his Sabbath-keeping would be such as became one so pious and prayerful as he was. The same conclusion seems to be warranted by the habits which he was the means of forming in others. For it appears that such Sabbath desecration as became general in later times, was for a considerable period unknown in the Lutheran Church. Plitt, of 1 De Reg. Christ., lib. i. c. 11. s Exam, de Dielrns Festis. 8 Emm. de Dielms Festis. 4 On Deut. v. Ser. 34. THE REFORMATION. 411 Bonn, who mentions this fact, at the same time states, respecting the Protestants who held the Calvinian creed, that “'-of old the Reformed Church specially maintained a strict Sabbath celebra­ tion in accordance with the law of God.” 1 On this subject Calvin remarks, “ I am obliged to be a little more prolix here, because in our day some unquiet spirits make an outcry about the Lord’s day. They complain that the Christian people are nursed in Judaism because some observance of days is retained.” 2 “ When our shop windows,” he observes in another publication, “ are shut on the Lord’s day— when we travel not, after the common order and fashion of men— this is to the end we should have more liberty and leisure to attend on that which God commandeth, that is, to be taught by His word, to meet together, to make confession of our faith, to call upon His name, to exercise ourselves in the use of His sacraments— the purpose which this order ought to serve.” 3 4. The Reformers believed the Sabbath to have been appointed by God at the creation. In explaining Gen. ii. 3, Luther says, “ It therefore follows from this place, that if Adam had abode in innocence, he should yet have kept holy the seventh day— that is, he should have instructed his descendants concerning the will and worship of God, and rendered to Him praise, thanksgiving, and offerings. On other days, he should have cultivated the soil and tended his flocks. Nay, after the fall he sanctified that seventh day ; in other words, he instructed his family on that day, as is testified by the offerings of his sons, Cain and Abel. Wherefore, the Sabbath was from the beginning of the world set apart to Divine worship.”4 According to The Confession of Saxony, which was drawn up by Melanchthon, and expresses the views of Luther and his friends, “ There hath been at all times, even from the beginning of mankind, a certain order of public meetings. There hath been also a certain distinction of times, and of some other ceremonies, and that, without doubt, full of gravity and elegancy, among those excellent lights of mankind, whenas in the same garden or cottage there sat together Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and 1 In Relig. Condit. of Christendom (1852), p. 465. 2 Instit. on Fourth Commandment. 4 Luiheri Opera (M.D.L.), tom. v. p. 23. 8 Ser 34, on D eut v. 4 1 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. their families ; and whenas, that sermon which Shem made con­ cerning the true God, the son of God, the distinction of the Church and other nations, being heard, afterward they together used invocation.”1 Melanchthon, in his Commentary on Genesis, remarks, when considering ch. ii. 3, that the seventh day, as the word sanctify denotes, was appropriated to the Divine service. In expounding Exodus xx. 8, Calvin has these words : “ Unquestion­ ably, when he had finished the creation of the world, God assumed to Himself, and consecrated the seventh day, that He might keep His worshippers entirely free from all other cares when engaged in considering the beauty, excellence, and glory of His works.” On the 11th verse of the same chapter, he remarks, that the pro­ hibition to gather manna on the seventh day, seems to imply the received knowledge and use of the Sabbath, and that it is in­ credible that, when God delivered the rite of sacrifice to the saints, the observance of the Sabbath could have been neglected. Let us add a sentence from his notes on Genesis ii. 3 : “ God, therefore, first rested, then blessed this rest, that in all ayes it might he sacred among men ; in other words, He consecrated every seventh day to rest, that His own example might he a perpetual r u l e According to Peter Martyr, the fourth ranks in antiquity with its associated requirements in the Decalogue : “ This commandment of the Sab­ bath was no more then first given when it was pronounced from heaven by the Lord, than any other of the moral precepts.” 2 Of the Sabbath, Bullinger, commenting on Rom. xiv. 5, says, “ As it was in the beginning of the world, so it must continue to its end.” Beza, in his annotations on Rev. i. 10, observes, that “ the seventh day having stood from the creation of the world to the resurrec­ tion of Christ, was exchanged by the apostles, doubtless at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, for that which was the first day of the new world.” And Ursinus, in his Catechism, after mention­ ing the reasons for the institution, remarks, “ As these relate to no definite period, but to all times and ages of the world, it fol­ lows that God would have men bound from the beginning of the world even to its end to keep a certain Sabbath.” 5. With such views of a primal Sabbath, the Reformers could Hot but regard it as in substance perpetuated in the Jewish weekly 1 Hall’s Harmony of Confessions, p. 402. s On Gen. ii. THE REFORMATION. 4 1 3 holy day. While they agreed with all Christians that God com­ manded the Jews to sanctify one day in seven, they had no con­ ception of its dating from the 2500th year of the world, but considered the transactions of Sin and Sinai as the recognition of 4 world-old institution. And on two grounds— its origination in the example and command of Jehovah at the creation, and its renewal in the Decalogue— they held it to be of Divine authority. 6. In like manner, their views respecting the early appoint­ ment of the weekly day of rest fully committed the Reformers to the doctrine of the Divine authority of the Christian Sabbath. This they knew had been the holy day of the Church from the time of the Redeemer’s resurrection. They themselves had regu­ larly observed it as such. In this and in no other day they saw their idea of a primitive and permanent weekly rest realized. They were therefore shut up to the conclusion that the Lord’s day, being the continuance of a heaven-born institute, must necessarily be an ordinance of God. But sufficient though this evidence is, it is not the only ground on which we can rest the assertion, that the Reformers maintained the doctrine in question. Let us adduce the following additional proofs. These men are found to reject certain practices which had been customary in the Church, for the express reason that they were not sanctioned by the wcrd of God. “ The fast of Lent,” says the latter Helvetic Confession, “ hath testimony of antiquity, but none out of the apostles’ writings ; and therefore ought not, nor cannot, be imposed on the faithful.” 1 In the same Confes­ sion it is declared, “ As for Popish visiting with the extreme unction, we have said before that we do not like of it, because it hath many absurd things in it, and such as be not approved by the canonical Scriptures.”2 On the fast of Lent, the Confession of Wiirtemburg harmonizes with that of Helvetia, as these words show : “ It is manifest that Christ did not command this fast; neither can the constitution of our nature abide it, that we should imitate the example of Christ’s fasting, who did abstain full forty days and forty nights from all meat and drink.”3 We have seen, in an early part of this volume, that holidays were^ entirely re­ jected by the Scottish Reformers, because they “ ha*d no institu- 1 Hall’s Harmony of Confessions,^. 383. * Ibid. p. 385. 8 Ibid. p. 403. 4 1 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. tion that they were ousted from Geneva, first by Farel and Viret, and a second time by the Council; that there was none in reformed Strasburg ; that the Church of Zurich discarded twelve feast-days » and that Luther and the Belgic churches would have banished them if it had been in their power. Henry, in his Life of Calvin, remarks, “ The Bernese, after accomplishing the expul­ sion of the ministers”— Calvin, Farel, and Courad (or Couralt),— “ had re-established in Geneva the following festivals :— the cir­ cumcision, the annunciation, the ascension, and Christmas-day. These the Genevese now at once abolished, and by so doing highly incensed their allies. Calvin, to whom this movement was gene­ rally attributed, did not think it necessary to take any steps against it, recollecting, probably, that the observance of holy days is nowhere expressly enjoined in Scripture.” 1 In another part of the work, the author unnecessarily laments the sacrifice in the Protestant Church of “ that joyous life which was connected with the Catholic festivals, and which Zwingle, Farel, and Calvin, so disturbed by their abridgment of the holidays. Thus, while the Lutheran Church retained even the least of the festivals in the ecclesiastical year, the Reformed Church could with difficulty retain the four high festivals, the preachers not even alluding to the rest in their discourses. Calvin was neither in favour of, nor absolutely against, the festivals; but was obliged to yield to the common wish of the people.” The writer introduces here this note : “ In the register of December 19, 1554, we find the fol­ lowing notice : — ‘ Christmas-day shall be celebrated as usual, though Calvin has represented to the Council that it would be as well to dispense with this festival as with the other three ” and proceeds thus : “ He was slanderously accused of wishing to abolish the Sabbath : against this statement he defended himself, and showed, in a letter to Haller, how the report arose.2 Farel and Viret had at first pursued the practice of noticing the festivals which had occurred in the week on the following Sunday. After the expulsion of the ministers, these festivals were celebrated on the original days. On Calvin’s return, and when he was strenu- 1 VoL ii. p. 116. - John Haller, “ of the Ulustrions family of that name,” was pastor of the Bernese Church.—Bonnet, in his Letters of Calvin, voL ii. p. 235, note. THE REFORMATION. 4 1 5 ously endeavouring to establish his reformation according to the Gospel, he appointed, though regarding the observation of the festivals as a matter of indifference, certain hours for prayer on those days, and during which the shops were to be kept closed. At noon every one was to return to his usual occupations. Christ­ mas-day was the only festival retained. The Council, however, without asking him, abolished, in 1551, all the attendant solem­ nities.”1 Although, then, particular expressions have been con­ ceived to imply the contrary, the facts that have just been ad­ duced prove that the Reformers considered the Lord’s day as belonging to a very different category from holidays. They re­ duced the number and altered the observance of holidays in some instances, wholly excluded them— and, if they had had their wish, would in every case have done so. In no instance was it ever attempted, or even proposed to them, to displace the Lord s day. The charge preferred by Barclay against Calvin, that “ he had a consultation once as to transferring the Lord s day ooservances to Thursday,” had nothing to support it but the word of a man who lived in the Court of James I., as a spy in the interest of the Queen-Mother of France, and who, says Dr. Twisse, “ if he could not prove true and loyal to his natural prince, could not be ex­ pected to carry himself truly and honestly towards John Calvin. 2 A charge, which was not even attempted to be sustained by a particle of evidence, and yet still figures in anti-Sabbatic works, merits no refutation, but we may state that it is disproved by the uniform respect for the day which Calvin expressed in his words and by his life. There are, besides, direct references by the Reformers to the Christian Sabbath which establish the position, that they held it to be a Divine ordinance. They believed, we have seen, that nature and order demanded some time to be set apart in every age to rest and religion, and that a seventh day for these pur­ poses was prescribed at the creation for the human race in their successive generations. They, at the same time, believed that all obligation to observe Saturday as a Sabbath had ceased. The question, then, to be determined was, On what other day are we to enjoy the indispensable rest and worship of a weekly holy day l Vol. i. p. 418. s Moral, of Fourth Corn., p. 35. 4 1 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. — on what day are we to be favoured with the provisions, and to fulfil the enduring appointment of Paradise 1 That appointment, and the moral part, as they called it, of the Fourth Commandment, they believed to be still in force. They might have seen that nothing more than some indication of the particular day was re­ quired. They did say, that there is no express command in the New Testament declaring, “ Thou shalt keep holy the first day of the week.” The conclusion to which some suppose they came was, that the early Christians were left at liberty to take the day which they might agree to prefer. Such a conclusion, it might be shown, was utterly unwarranted. Nor could they hold it consis­ tently with what they themselves thus declare respecting the man­ ner in which the Lord’s day was appointed. In the Confession of Saxony we find these words: “ We thank God, the everlasting Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, for His Son and by Him, gathered an eternal Church, for that even from the first beginning of mankind He hath preserved the public ministry of the gospel and honest assemblies; who Himself also hath set apart certain times for the same; and we pray Him that henceforth He will save and govern His Church.”1 “ The general rule,” as we read in the Confession of Augsburg, “ abideth still in the moral law, that at certain times we should come together to these godly exercises ; but the special day, which was but a ceremony, is free. Where­ upon the apostles retained not the seventh day, but did rather take the first day of the week for that use, that by it they might ad­ monish the godly both of their liberty, and of Christ’s resurrec­ tion.”2 We add a sentence from the same Confession, “ The true unity of the Church doth consist in several points of doctrine, in the true and uniform preaching of the gospel, and in such rites as the Lord himself hath set down.”3 Let us compare two sentences, the one in the former, the other in the latter Helvetic Confession : “ Even the Lord’s day itself, ever since the apostles’ time, was consecrated to religious exercises, and unto a holy rest; which also is now very well observed of our churches, for the worship of God, and increase of charity.”4 “ The which [the true] Church, though it be manifest to the eyes of God alone, yet is it not only 1 Hall’s Harmony of Confessions, p. 435. * Ibid. p. 217. * Ibid. p. 430. ‘ Ibid. p. 382. T1TE REFORMATION. 4 1 7 seen and known, by certain outward rites, instituted of Christ himself, and by the Word of God, as by a public and lawful dis­ cipline ; but it is so appointed, that without these marks no man can be judged to be in this Church, but by the special privilege of God.” 1 “ Consecrated since the apostles’ time,” in the former of these sentences, points to the inspired means by which the will of Christ was made known. “ It was meet,” says Melanchthon, “ that the apostles should oh this account ”— the resurrection of Christ— “ have changed the day.”2 Bucer observes, “ The Lord’s day was consecrated as a day on which the people might have nothing else to do than engage in religious services— “ by the very apostles.”3 “ The Sabbath,” according to Bullinger, “ is ordained of -God not for rest in itself, for he nowhere alloweth idleness; therefore the rest of the Sabbath is commanded for another end, namely, for the diligent study of religion, for it is therefore commanded to rest from manual labour, that we may spend this whole day in the exercise of religion.”4 The apostles must have been Calvin’s “ ancients ” in the following words : “ It was not without reason, that the ancients substituted what we call the Lord’s day in the room of the Sabbath. For when the true rest, which the old Sabbath symbolized, had its fulfilment in the resurrection of Christ, by that very day which ended the shadows, Christians are warned not to cleave to the shadowy ceremonial.”5 If Calvin had represented Christians as substitut­ ing the Lord’s day for the Sabbath, he would, in contradiction to his own solemn protest, have justified one of the pretensions of Rome, that of affecting power to change times and laws. Such a power is greater than that of prescribing a single duty of the first day of. the week ; and yet for this the word of an inspired apostle was required, for, as Calvin says, “ It was for this use”— the peace (the good) of Christian society— “ that the Sabbath was retained in the churches planted by him” (the apostle Paul), “ for he appoints that day to the Corinthians, whereon to collect their contributions in aid of their brethren in Jerusalem.’ 6 We have found Beza affirming, that the first day of the new world 1 Hall's Harmony of Confessions, p. 217. 2 Wells’ Practical Sabbatarian, p. 612. * De Reg. Christ, lib. i. c. 11. 4 On Rom. xiv. 5. * Instit. Fourth Commandment. 6 Ibid. 2 D 4 1 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. was adopted by the apostles in place of the seventh day, “ doubt­ less at the dictation of the Holy Spirit.” In words similar to those of Beza, both Gallasius (Nicolas des Gallars), one of the ministers of Geneva, and Faius, a successor of Calvin, ascribe the change of day to the Holy Spirit.1 The latter adds, “ The ob­ servance of this day, therefore, is not to be accounted a matter of mere indifference, but to be carefully attended to as a perpetual apostolic tradition.” In yet another way did the Reformers show their faith in the doctrine of a Divine and permanent Sabb&th. They considered the Lord’s day as coming under the authoritative direction of the Fourth Commandment. They erred, indeed, as we conceive, by regarding this commandment as partly ceremonial, an error which has involved some of their other statements in confusion, if not contradiction, and has been turned to bad account in anti-Sab- batic opinion and practice, both on the Continent, and in this country. But the ceremonial part of the precept they believed to have passed away, leaving the moral part to sanction the Chris­ tian Sabbath and guide its observance. Thus Luther, after telling us that “ this commandment, literally understood, does not apply to us Christians,” says, “ But in order that the simple may obtain a Christian view of that which God requires of us in this command­ ment, observe that we keep a festival.” He then refers to two objects of the institution applying to our times, the provision of rest for the children of toil, and of time and opportunity to men in general, such as they could not otherwise have, for attending to religion.2 The ideas of Calvin on the subject are thus expressed : “ The ancients are accustomed to call the fourth precept shadowy, because it comprehended an external observance of the day, which at the coming of Christ has along with other figures been abolished, which, indeed, is by them expressed justly.” But he adds, “ This gives only the half of the truth. Whereupon a higher sense has to be sought, and there are three reasons to be considered why this command is to be observed.” He then pro­ ceeds to state and enlarge on the reasons, and adds, “ The sum is, as the truth was delivered to the Jews under a figure, so it is commanded to us without shadows : First, that we aim at a per- 1 In Exod. xxxi. Disput. 47, in 4 Legis Praicept. 8 In his Larger Catechism. THE REFORMATION. 4 1 9 petual resting from our works during the whole of life, that God may work in us by his Spirit. Again, that eveiy one should diligently exercise himself iu private in the pious recognition of the works of God, as often as he has leisure; then also that all may together observe the lawful order of the Church established for hearing the Word, for the administration of the sacraments, and for public prayers. Thirdly, That we may not inhumanly oppress those placed under us.”1 The following words of the same individual are clear and decided : “ Most certainly what was commanded concerning the day of rest must belong to us as well as to them [the Jews]. For, let us take God’s law in itself, and we shall have an everlasting rule of righteousness. And, doubt­ less, under the ten commandments, God intended to give a rule that should endure for ever. Therefore let us not think that the things which Moses speaks respecting the Sabbath-day are need­ less for u s: not because the figure remaineth still in force, but because we have the truth thereof.” 2 We need add nothing more than that the Reformers were all pledged by the Formularies which they had subscribed, and by their expositions of the Ten Commandments in their Treatises and Catechisms, to the doctrine, that though the Mosaic ceremonies were repealed, and though the curse of the law was to all believers abrogated, the Moral Law, including the Fourth Commandment, is “ a perpetual rule to mankind.”3 But it remains that we listen to a few words from two distin­ guished men, whom we have not yet heard on any part of the subject; from Zwingle, one of the most learned of the Reformers, and John Knox, whom an able writer has lately characterized as “ perhaps, in an extraordinary age, its most extraordinary man.” The former, after declaring that Christ hath freed us from the Sabbath in so far as it was ceremonial, says, “ But as far as regards the spirit of the law, which always remains, it eminently respects us. The spirit of the law is to love God supremely, and to love our neighbour. Now to hear the Word, to meditate on God’s mercies, and to assemble for public prayers, belong to the 1 Institut. on Fourth Prec. s Ser. 34,. on Deut. v. 3 See Statements in HaU’s Harmony: of latter Helvetic Confession, p. 109; of French, p. 113; of Belgian, p. 114; and of Augustan, p. 178. 4 2 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. spirit of the law, and then that our family and their works may rest concerns the love of our neighbour. For although we are not bound to a certain time, we are bound to the glory of God, to his Word, to the celebration of his praise, and to the love of our neigh­ bours. Love, therefore, will teach us, when to labour, when* to keep holy day. For love never fails.” 1 In another place, referring to persons who betray their folly and ignorance by “ babbling about ceremonies,” and “ affirming that the Sabbath is one of them,” he says, “ The Sabbath is established by the first two and chief commands of God, which constitute the foundation and basis, as it were, of all laws and of the prophets. The authority of the first command, or love to God, conjoins with it the Sabbath, and affirms and approves it, because this is the time when .men are wont to meet to hear the Word of God, by the guidance of which, as far as can be attributed to doctrine, we are led into the true knowledge of the Lord himself, as the apostle Paul says in Ro­ mans x. 14. The Sabbath, therefore, is not a ceremony, nor ought to be classed with ceremonies. So the second command, the love of our neighbour, confirms the use and religious obligation of the Sabbath. For equity demands that some rest and recreation of the body should be allowed to our servants. We render it cere­ monial by a Jewish observance.”2 The following words show how he conceived the day should be spent: “ The observance of the Sabbath is here so carefully taught us by God, that we may cease and rest from sins, and withdraw our foot from evil (Isa. lviii.), and that we may apply ourselves to Divine things, to the reading of the law, to the Word of God, to thanksgiving, to prayers, to the recollection of Divine blessings. ' In fine, God having a re­ gard to our good, has appointed a rest for our wearied bodiesj(for which reason the night also has been made for the use of men), for that which is without alternate repose is not enduring.”3 It is to be regretted that Knox, than whom no Reformer had a clearer or more logical head, should have written so little respect­ ing the Sabbath. What his views of it were, however, may be certainly known from the Confession.of Faith, and the First Booh of Discipline which were drawn up by him and five other minis- 1 In Epist. ad Coloss. c. il tom. iv. p. 515. * Oper. tom. i. pp. 253, 254. * In Matt. vii. tom. iv. p. 59. THE REFORMATION. 4 2 1 ters ; from the Acts of the General Assembly, at which he was usually present; and, indeed, from the proverbial views and habits in the matter of the Scottish people, on whom he has exer­ cised so powerful and salutary an influence. The summary of the “ most just, most equal, most holy, and most perfect law of God” given in the Confession, though the duties not the precise words of almost any of the commandments are given, and the rejection of everything in religion and in the worship of God that “ has no other assurance but the invention and opinion of man,” prepare us for two things in the First Book of Discipline : First, the decisive condemnation of festivals in these words, “ The holy days invented by men, Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany [and so forth], we judge utterly to be abolished forth of this realm, because they have no assurance in God’s Word and second, the following injunction relative to the observance of the only holy day recognised by the Reformers of Scotland : “ The Sabbath must be kept strictly in all towns, both forenoon and afternoon for hearing of the Word; at afternoon upon the Sabbath, the Catechism shall be taught, the children examined, and the baptism ministered. Public prayers shall be used upon the Sabbath, as well afternoon as be­ fore, when sermons cannot be had.” In the third Assembly, which met in June 1562, the year in which the English Convocation agreed to adopt and publish thirty-eight of the now thirty-nine Articles, and the enlarged Book of Homilies, it was resolved “ that supplication be made to Queen Mary for the punishing of Sabbath breaking, and of all vices commanded by the law of God to be punished, and yet not commanded by the law of the realm,” and the Queen was again petitioned to the same effect in the Assembly of June 1565, while articles were prepared to be sent to her Majesty, one of which mentions “ manifest breaking of the Sabbath day,” among “ the horrible and detestable crimes” which ought to be punished. It was in the Assembly of December 1566 that the Helvetic Confession was approved, with the express exception of the part that tolerated festival days. On all these occasions probably— at the meetings of 1562 and 1566 certainly— Knox was present, and must have been, as he was in everything that respected the welfare of the Scottish Church, the leader in the proceedings. 19 4 2 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. THE REFORMATION. 4 2 3 Were we to imitate certain anti-Sabbatic writers, we should bo satisfied with having presented only such statements on this sub­ ject as favour our own dogma, and with leaving our readers to the unqualified impression that the Reformers were consistent advo­ cates of a permanent Sabbath. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive how men, who held opinions and maintained the practice which have been represented in their own words, could have afforded occasion to any for claiming their patronage of a very different creed. But as our cause appears to us too good to expose us even to the temptation of withholding any part of the truth, we intend to produce in a following chapter certain expressions of the emi­ nent men in question which have been considered as hostile to our doctrine. If it should be found that the result does not deprive us of their names as friends of the Sabbath, we take out of the hands of its enemies a weapon of which they have made an un­ sparing and injurious but unwarranted use. If they should be, seen to be inconsistent with themselves, their influence on either side is neutralized. If it turn out that the scale preponderates against us, the question is where it was, to be decided not by authority but by evidence. Before concluding our notices of the Sabbath at the Reforma­ tion, let us turn for a moment to the Church of Rome, and see how the institution then fared within her pale. The Council of Trent was convened by Pope Paul ra. in 1545, professedly for the purpose of correcting the ecclesiastical disorders of which many so loudly complained. In its canons and decrees there are a few references to the Lord’s day and holy days as seasons to be devoutly and religiously celebrated, and to be taken advantage of by bishops and preachers for instructing the people in the Scrip­ tures and in the mysteries of the mass. The Catechism put forth by the Council devotes a chapter to the Third (our Fourth) Com­ mandment. There we find it stated that the Sabbath dates from the time of the Exodus ; that, while the other commandments of the Decalogue are precepts of the natural and perpetual law, the third, as regards the time of observing the Sabbath, belongs not to the moral but ceremonial law, i.i which sense the obligation to observe it was to cease with the abrogation of the other Jewish rites at the death of Christ; that it, however, comprises some­ thing that appertains to the natural and moral law— in other words, the worship of God and practice of religion; that the apostles therefore resolved to consecrate the first day of the seven to worship, and called it the Lord’s day ; and that, in order to their knowing what they are to do and abstain from on this day, it will not be foreign to the pastor’s purpose to. explain to the faithful word for word the whole precept. The Catechism fur­ ther represents the Jewish Sabbath as a sign of a spiritual and mystic, and also of a celestial rest. It then, with Rome s usual art, glides into language which identifies the Apostles with the Church : “ It hath pleased the Church of God, in her wisdom, that the religious celebration of the Sabbath-day should be trans­ ferred to the Lord’s day. By the resurrection, on that day, of our Redeemer, our life was called out of darkness into light, and hence the Apostles would have it called the Lord s day. Proofs from the Scriptures and the Fathers are produced for a number of these statements, but none is alleged for the following : “ From the infancy of the Church, and in subsequent times, other days were instituted by the Apostles and by'our holy Fathers, in order to commemorate with piety and holiness the beneficent gifts of God.” The way is thus prepared for placing the Sabbath and Feast-days in close connexion, and finally, as in the following words, for putting them on the same level : “ There are many other things which our Lord in the Gospel declares may be done on Sundays and holidays, and which may be easily seen by the pastor in St. Matthew (ch. xii. 1, et seq.) and St. John (v. 10, et seq. ; vii. 22, et seq.) Thus Rome, faithful to her policy, seeks to neutralize truth by error, and to gain the purposes of enor by fortifying and dignifying it with an alliance to truth. She finds in Cardinal Tolet, Sir Thomas More, and others, defenders of her assumed powrer over sacred times, and in the civil authorities the means of enforcing it, for already (in 1538) had three or four men t>f Stirling suffered death “ because they did eat flesh meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving— “ in Lent,” at a marriage ; and even while the Council is sitting, a poor man, for working on a holy day, that his family might not starve, is consigned to the flames. 424 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. T H E S A B B A T H A F T E R T H E R E F O R M A T IO N . The period now to be surveyed brings to the Lord’s day no improvement of position or observance in the church or countries of the Papacy, It is something, however, that a portion of its sound doctrine is contained in the creed of the former, and its statute embodied in the laws of the latter, both the doctrine and the statute bearing their silent testimony against the thoughtless folly by which they are reproached, and the foul deeds by which they are. continually defied. Who can say that there have not been some in every age of that church who have been its devout observers 1 It is not long since the friends of the Sabbath were surprised and gratified by the zeal of the Archbishop of Paris, and the courage of M. de Montalembert on its behalf, and by the wel­ come with which many of the people of France hailed the labours of Cochrane for the same object. The free spirit, on the other hand, inspired by the Reformation, has prompted inquiry; and, accordingly, the Sabbath has, with other subjects, been the matter of earnest consideration and discussion. Two facts are worthy of remark. First, The institution has con­ tinued for three centuries to be a law of the Protestant nations of Europe. It has not been the spirit of the Reformation, but the spirit of Popery that has ever endangered that law. It was this latter spirit that produced the Book of Sports. The following anecdote derives credibility from the whole circumstances of that celebrated publication. The subject of the recovery of England to Popery was considered in a conclave of cardinals at Rome, and after various modes of effecting this desirable consummation had been suggested, a wily member of the fraternity said, “ Take away England’s Sabbath, and your object is gained.” Not long after, the Declaration of Sports appeared.1 Second, The agitation of the subject has led to clearer, more settled, and more salutary opinions respecting it. The controversies about ceremonies in England led to the more satisfactory form in which the doctrine of the Sabbath was set forth in the Homilies than it had assumed in Cranmer’s i Related at a public meeting in Islington a good many years ago by tbe Rev. Dr. Wilson, son of the late Bishop of Calcutta, AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 2 5 Catechism and other authorized documents. Similar controversies between the ministers of the Church of Scotland, and those who thrust upon that country the Articles of Perth, confirmed Scotsmen in their early view of the Sabbath, and prepared Henderson and his brethren for the prominent and effective part which they took in framing the Westminster formularies. It 1m been said, too, that the Sabbatic strifes in Holland contributed to the lucid state­ ments on our subject in the same formularies. In this last case, the discussions must have operated more by warning than by ex­ ample, as the doctrine of the Assembly at Westminster was a de­ cided improvement on that of the Synod of Dort, and was in fact the same doctrine as Robinson and Teellinck had carried from England and Scotland to the Netherlands. In following the remaining course of Sabbatic history, which runs most strongly and clearly in English and Scottish channels, we begin with the views of a weekly holy day which have been embodied in the formularies of our several churches. DOCTRINE OF OUR CHURCHES. The Sabbatic doctrine of the Church of England is to be found in her Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies. Her seventh Article re­ cognises the continued obligation of the Ten Commandments thus : “ Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching cere­ monies and rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth, yet, notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.” In “ the Order of the Administration of the Lord’s Supper,” it is re­ quired that “ the priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly all the T e n Co m m a n d m e n t s ; and that the people still kneeling shall, after every commandment, ask God mercy for their trans­ gression thereof for the time past, and grace to keep the same for the time to come.” The words of this prayer are set down for them in the Prayer-Book. When the “ minister,” for example, has recited the Fourth Commandment, the “ people” are di­ rected to say, “ Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” In the ministration of both public and pri- 426 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. vate baptism of children, the sureties are enjoined to provide that those who have been baptized shall be taught to learn the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue; and in the form of public baptism they are farther re­ quired to take care that the children be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him, so soon as they can say these lessons. Ac­ cordingly, in “ the Order of Confirmation,” it is said, “ The Church hath thought good to order, that none hereafter shall be confirmed, but such as can say the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments ; and can also answer to such other ques­ tions, as in the Short Catechism are contained : which order is very convenient to be observed ; to the end, that children, being now come to the years of discretion, and having learned what their god-fathers and god-mothers have promised for them in baptism, they may themselves, with their own mouth and consent, openly before the Church, ratify and confirm the same.” One of the things promised for them, and which at their confirmation they take it upon them to perform, is, “ I will endeavour obediently to keep God’s holy will and command­ ments, and walk in the same all the days of my life, God being fhy helper.” Referring to pp. 40-42 of this volume for the consentaneous doctrine of the Homilies on the subject, let us now present the views held by the Westminster Divines, as they are expressed in the Westminster Gonfession of Faith, and in the words— to many more familiar and endeared— of the Shorter Catechism:— “ As it is of the law of Nature, that, in general, a due pro­ portion of time be set apart for the worship of God ; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him : which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.” —• “ This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their com- AFTER THE REFORMATION. 427 mon affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations ; but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.”1 « Which is the Fourth Commandment 1 “ The Fourth Commandment is, Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it. “ What is required in the Fourth Commandment ? “ The Fourth Commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself. “ Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath ] “ From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath • and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sab­ bath. “ How is the Sabbath to be sanctified ? “ The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are law­ ful on other days ; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. “ What is forbidden in the Fourth Commandment ? “ The Fourth Commandment forbiddeth the omission or care­ less performance of the duties required, 'and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary l Confession, ch. xxi. sects. 7,8. 4 2 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or re­ creations. “ What are the reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment 1 “ The reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing^he Sabbath-day.”1 Such was the clearly and scripturally stated doctrine of the Sabbath that proceeded from one of the most learned and pious assemblies ever convened, including a Lightfoot, a Gataker, a Twisse, a Henderson, a Rutherford, a Wallis, and a Reynolds, and such ever since, as it was more or less before, has been the faith of the best men of Scotland, England, and the continents of Europe and America, the only drawback being that too many have risen up to counteract such views by perverse disputings or by ungodly practice. The Independents, who formed a small minority in the Westmin­ ster Assembly, though they differed from the other members on cer­ tain points, took no exception to the general opinion on the subject of the Sabbath. Ho fewer than a hundred ministers and messengers of their denomination, including Dr. Owen, met in a Synod held in 1658, and drew up a Confession of their Faith, of which, as com­ pared with that of the Westminster divines, Heal remarks, “ The difference between these two Confessions, in points of doctrine, is so very small, that modem Independents have in a manner laid aside the use of it in their families, and agreed with the Presbyterians in the use of the Assembly’s Catechism.” 2 The general doctrine of this admirable summary of Divine truth, which is substantially that of the Thirty-nine Articles and Homilies of the Church of England, was cordially held by the evangelical members of that Church, and, with few exceptions, by the English Hon-Conform- ists, till the rise of Methodism, when, while Whitefield and his friends adhered to the x>ld. creed, \yeslev and hnTnumerous fol­ lowers in sdfhe important respects departed from it. Ho class, however, have been more zealous abettors of a holy Sabbath than the Wesleyan Methodists. From England, the Westminster For­ mularies were imported into Scotland, which, having suggested and 1 Shorter Catechism. 2 History of the Puritans (1738), vol. iv. p. 191. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 2 9 materially contributed to their production, adopted them, with the valuable addition of her own Directory foff Family Worship, to be henceforth and eminently her inheritance.# She had been fami­ liarized by her Reformers with a Sabbath, attended by no com­ peting holidays, and strictly observed, but she gladly welcomed the fuller testimony on the subject supplied in the Confession of Faith, Directory, and Catechisms. Hor have the separations from her Church of some considerable parties diminished the Sabbatic teach­ ing and practice of the land. These parties have both retained the old zeal for the Lord’s day, and given an impulse to the feel­ ing in the society from which they sprang. The Secession Church, including the Erskines, the Moncrieffs, Adam Gib, and Brown of Haddington, Drs. Young of Hawick and Lawson of Selkirk, Drs. Jamieson of Edinburgh and Waugh of London, Drs. Ferrier of Paisley and Dick of Glasgow,— the Relief Church, represented by Gillespie, Thomas Bell, and Dr. Struthers,— the Reformed Pres­ byterian Church and its leaders, Macmillan and the Symingtons,— the Independents and Baptists, headed the one by das, Greville Ewing, and Dr. Wardlaw, the other by the Haldanes and Dr. Innes,— the United Original Seceders, who rejoiced in such spiri­ tual guides as Drs. M‘Crie, Paxton, and Stevenson,— and the. Free Church, of which Dr. Chalmers was the facile princeps,— all held, as their successors to a man still hold, the Sabbatic doctrine of the Confession of Faith. From some of these Churches have proceeded independent and able declarations and defences of that doctrine, whieh, but for overcrowding our pages, we should have been happy to introduce in this place.1 One other doctrinal statement may suffice. It is “ The Primary Address” of the Society for Promoting the Observance of the Lord’s Day— a manifesto which was written by Dr. Daniel Wilson, late Bishop of Calcutta, and not only expressed the views of the members of the society, many of whom belonged to the Church of England, but was unanimously assented to in 1855 by the Metro­ politan Committee, composed of “ many ministers of religion of 1 We refer, in particular, to “ The Testimony of the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church," and “ The Testimony to the Truths of Christ, agreed to by the United Original Seceders,”—the former drawn up by Dr. Stark, Dennyloanhead, and Professor Duncan of Mid-Calder—the other, by Drs. M‘Crie and Stevenson (Ayr). 19* 4 3 0 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. various denominations — “ That the dedication of one day in every seven to religious rest and the worship of Almighty God is of Divine authority and perpetual obligation, as a characteristic of revealed religion during all its successive periods ; having been enjoined upon man at the creation— recognised and confirmed in the most solemn manner in the Ten Commandments— urged by the prophets as an essential duty, about to form a part of the in­ stitutions of the Messiah’s kingdom— vindicated by our Divine Lord from the unauthorized additions and impositions of the Jewish teachers— transferred by Him and his apostles, upon the abroga­ tion of the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, to the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and on that account called ‘ The Lord’s Day’— and finally established in more than all its primitive glory as an ordinance of the spiritual uni­ versal Church of the New Testament, and a standing pledge and foretaste of the eternal rest of heaven. And that this meeting believes that every person in a Christian country is bound in con­ science to devote this seventh portion of his time to the honour of God, by resting from the business of his calling ; by abstaining altogether from the pursuit of gain, and from ordinary pastimes and recreations ; by guarding against every worldly avocation and interruption; and by spending the entire day in the public and private duties of religion, with the exception of such works of necessity and charity as our Saviour by his example was pleased to allow and command: so as to designate this one day of rest and Divine service, after six days of labour, as a more distinguished privilege of the Christian, than it was of the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations.” 1 PERSONAL TESTIMONIES. It is only a few of such testimonies— which might be inde­ finitely multiplied— that our space allows us to record. But these few are sufficient to show how individuals of various times, stations, and other circumstances, are at one as to the authority and value of the weekly rest. Let Lord Bacon be our first wit­ ness in the cause, “ A Christian,” he says, “ thinks sometimes 1 Baylee’s Hist, of the Sabbath, pp. 219, 220. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 3 1 that the ordinances of God do him no good, yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them.” “ In the distribu­ tion of days, we see the day wherein God did rest and contemplate His own works wa3 blessed above all the days wherein he did effect and accomplish them.” “ It is an easy thing to call for the observance of the Sabbath-day ; but what actions and works may be done on the Sabbath, and what not,— to set this down, and clear the whole matter with good distinctions and decisions, is a matter of great knowledge and labour, and asketh much meditation and conversing in the Scriptures, and other helps, which God hath provided and preserved for instruction.” 1 Sir Matthew Hale’s name as a friend of the institution is familiar, but the following sentence from his writings is not so com­ monly cited as some others :— “ And thus you have the reason of the obligation upon us Christians, to observe the first day of the week, because by more than a human institution, the morality of the fourth commandment is transferred to the first day of the week, being our Christian Sabbath ; and so the fourth command­ ment is not abrogated, but only the day changed, and the moral­ ity of that command only translated, not annulled.” 2 “ The very life of religion,” says Archbishop Leighton, “ doth much depend upon the solemn observation of this day; consider but, if we should intermit the keeping of it for one year, to what a height profaneness would rise in those that fear not God ; which are yet restrained (though not converted) by the preaching of the Word and their outward partaking of public worship ; yea, those that are most spiritual would find themselves losers by the inter­ mission.”3 The Archbishop’s contemporary, Bishop Pearson, has these words in his Exposition of the Creed : “ From this resurrec­ tion of our Saviour, and the constant practice of the apostles, this first day of the week came to have the name of ‘ the Lord’s day;’ and is so called by St. John, who says of himself in the Revelation, ‘ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day’ (Rev. i. 10). And thus the observation of that day, which the Jews did sanctify, ceased, and was buried with our Saviour ; and, in the stead of it, the religious observation of that day on which the Son of God 1 Works (1855), vol. ii. p 230 ; (1852), vol. i. p. 1T5 ; (1730), voL iv. p. 429. 8 Contemplations (1676), vol. i. pp. 483, 484. 8 Works, vol iv. p. 14. 4 3 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. rose from the dead, by the constant practice of the blessed apos­ tles, was transmitted to the Church of God, and so continued in all ages.” 1 Passing over the similar views of Dr. H. More, Bishop Hopkins, Drs. John Scott (author of the Christian Life) and Littleton, we come to the following interesting words— the more so as proceeding from such a man : “ Besides his particular calling for the support of life,” says John Locke, “ every one has a concern in a future life, which he is bound to look after. This engages his thoughts in religion ; and here it mightily lies upon him to understand and reason right. Men therefore cannot he excused from understanding the words and framing the general notions relating to religion right. Th e one d a y in se v e n , be­ sides other days of rest, allows in the Clhrisfian’worM time enough for this (had they no other idle hours), if they would but make use of these vacancies from their daily labour, and apply them­ selves to an improvement of knowledge with as much diligence as they often do to a great many other things that are useless.”2 To the judgment of Locke we add that of Addison : “ I am al­ ways very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keep­ ing holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind.” 3 Lord Karnes, Adam Smith, and Burke are names of great weight, as those of men eminent for talent, knowledge, and sagacity. The first-mentioned says: “ The setting apart one day in seven, for public worship, is not a pious institution merely, but highly moral; with regard to the latter, all men are equal in the presence of God; and, when a congregation pray for mercy and protection, one must be inflamed with good-will and brotherly love to all. In the next place, the serious and devout tone of mind, inspired by public worship, sug­ gests naturally self-examination. Ketired from the bustle of the world, on that day of rest, the errors we have been guilty of are recalled to memory : we are afflicted for those errors, and firmly resolve to be more on our guard in time coming. In short, Sun­ day is a day of rest from worldly concerns, in order to be more usefully employed upon those that are internal. Sunday, accord- 1 Edit, of 1845, p. 415. 2 Conduct of the Understanding, sect. 8. s Spectator, No. 112. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 3 3 indy, is a day of account; and a candid account every seventh day is the best preparation for the great day of account.' A per­ son who diligently follows out this preparatory discipline will sel­ dom be at a loss to answer for his own conduct, called upon by God or man. This le&ds me naturally to condemn the practice of abandoning to diversion or merriment what remains of Sunday after public worship, such as parties of pleasure, gaming, etc., or anything that trifles away the time without a serious thought, as if the purpose were to cancel every virtuous impression made at public worship. Unhappily tffis salutary institution can only be preserved in vigour during the days of piety and virtue. Power and opulence are the darling objects of every nation ; and yet, in every nation possessed of power and opulence, virtue subsides, selfishness prevails, and sensuality becomes the ruling passion. Then it is that the most sacred institutions first lose their hold, next are disregarded, and at last are made a subject of ridicule.” 1 The words of Smith, already employed as a motto, deserve to be again presented. “ The Sabbath,” he said, “ as a political insti­ tution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine authority.” And, in his Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, Burke gave utterance to these memorable sentences : “ They who always labour can have no twie judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool. You can never survey from its proper point of sight the work you have finished before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the future by the past. These are among the effects of unremitted labour, when men exhaust their attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark. Malo meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram d ilig en tia m N ex t in order is Cowper, who, in a letter to the Rev. Wm. Unwin, thus fully propounds his Sabbatic views :— “ With respect to the advice you are required to give to a young lady, that she may be properly instructed in the manner of keeping the Sabbath, I just subjoin a. few hints which have occurred to me upon the occasion ; not because I think you want them, but be­ cause it would seem unkind to withhold them. The Sabbath, then, I think, may be considered, first, as a commandment, no less binding upon modern Christians than upon ancient Jews ; 1 Creech’s Fugitive Pieces, p. 182. 2 E 4 3 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. because the spiritual people amongst them did not think it enough to abstain from manual occupations on that day, but, entering more deeply into the meaning of the precept, allotted those hours they took from the world to the cultivation of holi­ ness in their own souls; which ever was, and ever will be, a duty incumbent upon all who ever heard of a Sabbath ; and is of per­ petual obligation both upon Jews and Christians (the command­ ment therefore enjoins it, the prophets have also enforced it, and, in many instances, both scriptural and modern, the breach of it has been punished with a providential and judicial severity, that may make bystanders tremble) : secondly, As a privilege which you well know how to dilate upon, better than I can tell you ; thirdly, As a sign of that covenant, by which believers are entitled to a rest which yet remaineth; fourthly, As the sine qua non or neces­ sary part of the Christian character ; and, on this head, I should guard against being misunderstood to mean no more than two at­ tendances upon public worship, which is a form complied with by thousands who never kept a Sabbath in their lives. Consistence is necessary to give substance and solidity to the whole. To sanc­ tify the Sabbath at .church, and to trifle it away out of church, is profanation, and vitiates a ll! After all, I could ask my catechu­ men one short question, Do you love the day, or do you not 1 If you love it, you will never inquire how far you may safely deprive yourself of the enjoyment of it. If you do not love it, and you find yourself obliged in conscience to acknowledge it, that is an alarming symptom, and ought to make you tremble. If you do not love it, then you wish it was over, because it is a weariness to you. The ideas of labour and rest are not more opposite to each other, than the idea of a Sabbath, and that dislike and disgust with which it fills the minds of thousands, to be obliged to keep it. It is worse than bodily labour.” “ Sir John Shore,” afterwards Lord Teignmouth, “ neglected not, amidst the toils and cares of empire, those literary pursuits which were ever congenial to his taste, and which he cultivated in the society of his friend, Sir W. Jones, who, like himself, was the son of a widowed mother, whose maternal solicitudes were amply repaid by their auspicious results. On the death of that unrivalled Oriental scholar, Sir John Shore succeeded to the chair of the Asiatic Society, and pronounced an AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 3 5 elegant and luminous eulogium on his predecessor.” It is added, in a note, “ How anxiously he felt in after years upon the subject of the observance of the Lord’s day may be seen by a paper from his Lordship’s pen, which he addressed to us for insertion in our volume for 1803, p. 537, signed ‘ Sunday.’ HisLordship_makes Sunday complain of the grievous neglect shown to him, m this professedly Christian and Protestant country. His Lordship did not view the Christian Sabbath as the mere creature of ecclesiastical authority ; but, on the contrary, makes it ‘ derive all its title to consideration from its Divine origin.’ He mentions many of the ways of idleness, business, and pleasure— the last he calls the devil’s allurements’— in which the day is too often violated, both by the rich and the poor. We quote one passage, which de­ serves to be seriously considered at the present moment : ‘ I remark many of the poorer classes who find the respect which they pay to me (Sunday) most amply rewarded, not merely y an exemption from their daily labours, but by a composed frame of mind, which is the natural consequence of a due attention to me. With many, it is the only consolation they enjoy ; and I cannot but therefore deprecate that more than common species of cruelty which would endeavour to deprive these poor people, not only of bodily rest, but of spiritual consolation. Of this cruelty every man who, by example, encouragement, or authority, endeavours to degrade me in their estimation, is most palpably guilty: and whatever he may think, incurs by it a most awful responsibility, which he will be called upon one day to answer. It would not be easy to find a more comprehensive or more beautiful tribute to the Day of Rest than the following by e biographer of Knox and Melville, the late Dr. M Cne The Sabbath is the wisest and most beneficent, as well as the mos ancient, institute of heaven; the first gift which God conferred on our newly created parents, and by which he continues to testify at once his care for our bodies and our spirits, by Provl ' ing relaxation for the one, and refreshment for the other; the joint memorial of creation and redemption ; the token of Gods residence on earth, and the earnest of man’s elevation to heaven , an institute which blends together, like the colour^of the rainbow, i Christian Observer (1834), PP- 264, 265. 4 3 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. —itself a sacred emblem,— recollections of the innocence of our primeval state, and the grace of our recovery, with anticipations of the glory to which we are called; an institute in the observ­ ance of which we feel ourselves associated, not only with all who ‘ in every region, yea, on every sea,’ believe on the same Saviour ; but also with holy men, apostles, prophets, and patriarchs, in every age since ‘ men began to call on the name of the Lord nay, in which we are raised to communion with the Father of our spirits ; and, by resting with Him on the seventh day, receive his sacred pledge, that in labouring and doing all our work on the six days, we shall have that blessing which alone maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow.”1 Let the eloquent words of Principal Forbes close these testimonies : “ One result of a due economy of time, is a due amount of relaxation. He whose waking hours are well occupied, need not grudge himself a good night’s rest. His very holidays are part of his economy ; and the seventh day sheds its invigorating influence over the other six. By earnestness in your studies during the week, I advise you to reap the enjoyment of that beneficent provision of the Almighty, and by a sedulous abstinence in thought, as well as in act, from your occupations, to restore the tone of your minds and the capacity for vigorous exertion. None who have not made a strong effort are aware of the admirably tranquillizing influence of twenty-four hours studiously segregated from the ordinary current of thought. Monday morning is the epoch of a periodic renovation.”2 CIVIL ENACTMENTS. The late clerical secretary of the Society for Promoting the due Observance of the Lord’s Day. has thus summed up the Sabbath laws enacted in England from the year 1604 : “ In the reign of James I., trading in boots and shoes on the Lord’s day is pro­ hibited by law ; and by an act passed in the first year of the reign of Charles I., it was found necessary to restrain'by a law assemblages of persons from various parishes on the Lord’s day. 1 The Witnes&faug. 28,1861. * Rev. D. C. A. Agnew’s Occasional Papers on Sabbath Observance. No. 12. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 3 7 And in the second year of the same king, travelling of carriages is prohibited. We can easily conceive how inconsistent with such legislation must have appeared to his subjects the re-issuing, on the part of the king, of the Book of Sports of his father, which virtually encouraged what the Act of the first year of his reign pronounced unlawful. The Act of the 29th Ch. n. c. 7, is a very important one, still in force, and needing only some amend­ ments, chiefly as regards an increase in the amount of the penal­ ties, to render it efficient. It prohibits the following of ordinary callings, and enjoins upon all, publicly and privately, to exercise themselves in the duties of piety and true religion. The Act 21 Geo. nr. c. 40 has proved a highly beneficial law, in preventing places of amusement being opened for payment of money on the Lord’s Day. Bishop Porteus was the first who suggested the necessity of an Act of this nature, in order to suppress assem­ blages of an immoral and irreligious .tendency on the Lord’s day. The Act, though stringent and efficient for its purposes, is evaded with impunity in London, persons being admitted to public gar­ dens by means of refreshment tickets purchased on the ordinary days of the week. In the reign of George iv., and subsequently at different times, Acts were passed regulating inns, taverns, etc., on the Lord’s day. It is to be hoped the day is not far distant when the law will require them to be closed wholly on the Lord’s day, with such exceptions as charity may require ; for it is now an established fact, that crime increases in the same degree in which public-houses are allowed to be opened on the Lord’s day. The Act 3 and 4 William iv. is deserving of special notice. It enables the election of officers of corporations, formerly required to be held on the Lords day, to be held cm Saturday or Monday. It is the Act of the late Sir Andrew Agnew, and was passed in 1833. The bill wras drawn up by Mr. George Rochfort Clarke ; the preamble of it is important, for it asserts it to be the duty of the Legislature to remove as much as possible impediments to the due observance of the Lord's day. Imperfect as is our legis­ lation on the subject of the Lord’s day, yet it has proved a mighty barrier to keep out the tide of profanation of the day with which the love of gain and of pleasure, more than of God, would otherwise have inundated us ; it has also proved highly protective 4 3 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. to society in general, in securing to a population the most active, industrious, and hard-worked in Europe, the privilege of one day in seven for religious instruction and rest.”1 Of the civil enactments in Scotland relative to the Sabbath, and belonging to the years 1661, 1672, 1693, 1695, and 1701, the late Lord President Blair said, in 1823, “ By these Statutes, every person guilty of 'profaning the Sabbath-day in any mannei' what­ ever, is made liable in a pecuniary penalty, toties quoties, to be recovered, by prosecution before sheriffs, justices of peace, or any other judge ordinary. And the minister of every parish, the kirk- session, or the presbytery, or a person named by them, is entitled to prosecute. There appears, therefore, to be no defect in the law as it stands, if duly executed.” . ECCLESIASTICAL COUNSELS. Turning to the practical teachings on our subject with which this nation has been blessed, we begin with a few sentences taken from the Homily “ Of the Place and Time for Prayer : ” “ God’s obedient people should use the Sunday holily, and rest from their common and daily business, and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of God’s true religion and service.” “ God’s people hath always, in all ages, without any gainsaying, used to come together upon the Sunday, to celebrate and honour the Lord’s blessed name, and carefully to keep that day in holy rest and quietness, both man, woman, child, servant, and stranger.” “ Wherefore, 0 ye - people of God, lay your hands upon your hearts, repent and amend this grievous and dangerous wickedness [profaning the day by riding, marketing, labour, rioting, and ex­ cess], stand in awe of the commandment of God, gladly follow the example of God himself, be not disobedient to the godly order of Christ’s church, used and kept from the apostles’ time until this day. Fear the displeasure and just plagues of Almighty God, if ye be negligent and forbear not labouring and travelling on the Sabbath-day or Sunday, and do not resort together to celebrate and magnify God’s blessed name in quiet holiness and godly re­ verence.” 1 Hitt, of the Sab., by the Rev. John Bay lee, pp. 134-138. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 3 9 The following are the more copious instructions of the West­ minster Assembly on “ the Sanctification of the Lord’s day — “ The Lord’s day ought to be so remembered beforehand, as that all worldly business of our ordinary callings may be so ordered, and so timely and seasonably laid aside, as they may not be impediments to the due sanctifying of the day when it comes. “ The whole day is to be celebrated as holy to the Lord, both in public and private, as being the Christian Sabbath. To which end, it is requisite, that there be a holy cessation or resting all that day from all unnecessary labours ; and an abstaining, not only from all sports and pastimes, but also from all worldly words and thoughts. “ That the diet on that day be so ordered, as that neither ser­ vants be unnecessarily detained from the public worship of God, nor any other person hindered from the sanctifying that day. “ That there be private preparations of every person and family, by prayer for themselves, and for God’s assistance of the minister, and for a blessing upon his ministry; and by such other holy exercises, as may further dispose them to a more comfortable com­ munion with God in his public ordinances. “ That all the people meet so timely for public worship, that the whole congregation may be present at the beginning, and with one heart solemnly join together in all parts of the public ifarship, and not depart till after the blessing. “ That what time is vacant, between or after the solemn meet­ ings of the congregation in public, be spent in reading, meditation, • repetition of sermons; especially by calling their families to an account of what they have heard, and catechising of them, holy conferences, prayer for a blessing upon the public ordinances, sing­ ing of psalms, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the Sabbath a delight.” In adopting the preceding document, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland added to it a “ Directory for Family Wor­ ship.” “ On the Lord’s day, after every one of the family apart, and the whole family together, have sought the Lord (in whose hands the preparation of men’s hearts is), to fit them for the public 440 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. worship, and to bless to them the public ordinances, the master of the family ought to take care that all within his charge repair to the public worship, that he and they may join with the rest of the congregation : and the public worship being finished, after prayer, he should take an account what they have heard ; and thereafter, to spend the rest of the time which they may spare in catechising, and in spiritual conferences upon the Word of God : or else (going apart) they ought to apply themselves to reading, meditation, and secret prayer, that they may confirm and increase their communion with God : that so the profit which they found in the public ordinances may be cherished and preserved, and they more edified unto eternal life.” The United Secession Church, which has since coalesced with the Relief body, under the name of the United Presbyterian Church, gave forth along with her statement of principles a warn­ ing against practical evils, which thus deals with the evil of Sab­ bath desecration : “ Another indication and form of impiety, is the lamentably extensive profanation of the Sabbath,— by parties of pleasure, by unnecessary travelling, by the transaction of business, and by devoting the day to mere bodily recreation. To what de­ vices do many res'ort for the purpose of evading the laws which have been wisely and justly enacted to secure its external observ-. ance ! and how is the authority of the Divine precept disregarded by those who privately appropriate this sacred portion of time to the assorting of accounts, writing letters of business, and other arrangements as to secular affairs ! The precept is as really, and sometimes as grossly, violated by the carnal, and altogether unbe­ coming conversation too prevalent among those who make other and higher professions. We cannot too strongly reprobate the practice of limiting the observance of the Sabbath to the hours of public worship, and forthwith, as if no further obligation existed, indulging in feasting, visiting, walking, amusements, the reading of profane authors, and of newspapers, and the prosecution of se­ cular studies. Ought religion to be deemed a labour to be as slightly undergone, and as speedily dispatched as possible ? How criminal every attempt to rob the Most High of what, in a liberal grant to man, he hath appropriated to himself! No recreation can be lawful on the Sabbath, but what accords with the principal de­ a ft e r the reform ation. 441 sign of the day, which is manifestly to rest with God in the delighted contemplation of his glory as displayed in the works of nature, but especially in the mystery of redemption ; and to render to him the homage he requires. It is thus only we are fitted for returning to the business of life, under pious impressions, and prepared for that Sabbath, when bodily recreation shall be no longer needful. So far from tolerating the least encroachment on that sacred day, the Scriptures condemn the very disposition to say, ‘ What a weari­ ness is it, when will the Sabbath be over,’ that we may return to our secular employments 1 Amos viii. 5; Mai. i. 13, 14. Both spiritual and temporal prosperity are, by the promise of Him who alone can bestow them, connected with due respect to the Sabbath. Isa. lvi. 2-7 ; lviii. 13, 14.” 1 From the Laws and Regulations of the Wesleyan Methodists, in which there are several directions concerning the observance of the Lord’s day, we select one addressed to the Chairmen of Dis­ tricts : “ Let us earnestly exhort our societies to make the best and most religious use of the rest and leisure of the Lord s day . let us admonish any individuals who shall be found to neglect our public worship, under pretence of visiting the sick or other simi­ lar engagements : let us show to our people the evil of toasting t those portions of the Sabbath, which are not spent in public wor- * ship, in visits or in receiving company, to the neglect of private prayer, of the perusal of the Scriptures, and of family duties, and, often to the serious spiritual injury of servants, who are thus im­ properly employed, and deprived of the public means of grace , let us set an example in this matter, by refusing for ourselves and for our families, to spend in visits, when there is no call of duty or necessity, the sacred hours of the Holy Sabbath ; and let us never'allow the Lord’s day to be secularized by meetings of mere business, when such business refers only to the temporal affairs of the Church of God.” 2 1 Testimony, pp. 167, 168. _ 2 Warren’s Digest of the Laws and Regulations of the Wesleyan Methaustt, p . 7 J. 4 4 2 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. PRACTICAL MEASURES. It has been too characteristic of the Continental churches and people to allow their Sabbatic doctrine and laws to slumber in their Confessions and statute-books. This has been too much the case at home, but still more abroad. In England, there have al­ ways been men who have endeavoured to carry out their principles into measures for promoting the observance, and remedying the desecration of a day which they reverenced and loved. The Puri­ tans ; their evangelical successors within and without the pale of the Church ; and the Methodists, have been the means of preserv­ ing true religion, including the sanctification of the Sabbath, in the land. They have employed for this purpose the pulpit and the press, and in their families and neighbourhoods, private instruc­ tion, and the silent influence of holy example. Scotland has been no less favoured with the practical measures by which her creed has been prevented from becoming a dead letter. John Knox gave the impulse, which the Melvilles, Welch, and others, carried on and increased.1 The immediate successors of the great reformer, and the Covenanters struggled, as did the Puritans, for Sabbatic rights and privileges in times of danger and persecution. The number of Acts passed by the General Assembly on this subject is very .great, says the Rev. Dr. M‘Farlane, who supplies instances, from 1638 to 1708, and adds, “ From these specimens of Acts of Assembly, it will be seen how the Church availed herself of the aid which the laws afforded for the suppression of gross breaches of the Sabbath. To show, however, that these venerable fathers of the Church, and chief framers of the habits of our country de­ pended not merely, or even chiefly, on police regulations, for carry­ ing their ends into effect, we have only now to turn to the means which they employed for the suppression of profanity [profane­ ness] in general.”2 The means urged for this purpose were that 1 See Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, p. 344, for evidence of the faithfulness "of the General Assembly in calling to account certain nobles of the land on the subject of Sabbath-breaking, and of the gratifying success which attended their measures. At a later period, the session-records of Ayr bear testimony to the vigilant care of John Welch to have the institution sanctified in that town. We trust, that a satisfactory “ life" of this remarkable man, which has employed the con amore labours of oui friend, the Rev. James Young of Edinburgh, will be forthcoming at no distant date. 8 Treatise on the Christian Sdbhath, pp. 258, 262. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 4 3 ministers should be “ much in prayer and supplication on account of these evils,” that they “ preach plainly and faithfully against” them, that they “ deal earnestly and much with the consciences of evil-doers,” that “ Church judicatories do faithfully exercise church discipline against all such scandalous offenders,” that “ ministers and elders take care that the worship of God be per­ formed in each family” under their care, and that “ all prudence and meekness of wisdom, along with fidelity, be shown” in the use of the various expedients for the reclamation of the erring. The churches that at various times disconnected themselves from the Church of Scotland, while, as we have already seen, they re­ tained her doctrine respecting the Sabbath, have strenuously sought to secure for it due regard and honour. In the present century the friends of the Sabbath, imitating the example of the promoters of Bible circulation and of mis­ sions, have resorted to the new form of associated effort outside the walls of their respective churches for vindicating the claims, and advancing the interests of an institution, in regard to the Divine authority and indispensable importance of which they were agreed. In 1831, the Society for promoting the due observance of the Lord’s day was formed in London. “ In all the movements in reference to the Sabbath, which have been made since its formation, it has taken a prominent,” and we may add, an energetic “ part.” “ The continually increasing desecration of the Lord’s day in Scotland led to the formation,” in 1847, of the Sabbath Alliance, designed to embrace the whole of that division of the United Kingdom, and having for its basis, “ the Divine authority and universal and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, as declared at large in the Word of God, and more formally and particularly iu the Fourth Commandment of the Moral Law.” By its publications, public meetings, the visits to the country of its agents, its exertions against Sabbath profana­ tion, by means of railways, the post-office, the traffic in liquor, baking, and other practices, it has rendered important service to the cause of religion. A society in Glasgow having the same object has also been successful. When the appeal, as mentioned in pp. 167, 168, was responded to by 1045 working men, who competed for the prizes offered to their class for the three best 4 4 4 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. essays on the “ temporal advantages of the Sabbath,” seventy of the writers were Glasgow men. These seventy met in the year 1849, and formed themselves into “ The Glasgow Working Men’s Sabbath Protection Association.” Their object was to de­ fend the Sabbath against all unnecessary encroachments on its /sacred time, and, in the prosecution of this object, they were to avail themselves of every means sanctioned by Christian prin­ ciple, especially sermons, lectures, addresses at public meetings, and the circulation of tracts and pamphlets bearing on the sub­ ject. They have laboured assiduously to prevent or remove various forms of Sabbath desecration connected with railways, the post-office, the Sydenham Palace, the British Museum, the employment of cabs and carriages, the opening of shops for the transaction of ordinary business, Sunday steamers, and the liquor traffic. We have much pleasure in quoting a sentence or two from a letter, addressed in 1858, by their President, at that time Mr. James Lemon, in name of the Association, to Lord Stanley, when a petition of certain savans prayed the Government to open various places of amusement for public exhibition on the Lord’s day : “ We beg most respectfully to state that aggressions such as these which your Lordship is attempting to make on the day of rest have been the very means of banding us together for the protection of our inalienable birthright to rest one day in seven ; and it pains and alarms us when we hear of a peer of the realm endeavouring to annihilate the very principles which his ancestors in the worst of times so nobly defended. And we consider that we are in duty bound at this crisis, to remonstrate with your Lord- ship, by declaring that we repudiate all systematic and predeter­ mined labour, however amusing it may be, if it enslaves our neigh­ bours on the Sabbath day, inasmuch as all such labour undermines the Word of God, the grand basis of Sabbath preservation, and tends to foster principles which sap the foundations of domestic virtue, true piety, and national prosperity.” Various other associations, in England and Scotland, have contributed to the advancement of the great cause of Sabbath observance ; but they are too numer­ ous for specific mention. No one who truly regards the weekly holy day himself, will be indifferent to its desecration, or unwilling to employ his influence AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 4 5 for remedying the evil. But there are individuals, who from their better opportunities, their greater ability, or more fervent zeal, have rendered a wider or more enduring service to the institution than others have accomplished, and who are there­ fore entitled to our special grateful commemoration. Such men have been a Knox, a Greenham, a Bownd, a Twisse, a Young, an Owen, a Durham, a Willison. Such too, have been Bishop Porteus, Holden, Bishop Blomfield, Dr. Wilson, Mr. Joseph Wilson, Sir Andrew Agnew, the Rev. William Leake and the Rev. John Davies, the Earl of Shaftesbury, John Henderson, Esq., of Park, and Mr. Peter Drummond of Stirling. OBSERVANCE. The sanctification of the Sabbath in the family is one of the best evidences of the influence of its doctrine, and yet is itself one of the most effectual measures for extending its beneficial power, a measure second only to that which is wielded from the pulpit. Let us present a brief account of instances in which the Sabbath has shed its purity and peace in the dwellings of our people. From a number of contemporary examples we select one from a situation in life very far from being favourable to a holy rest. Lord Harrington died at the early age of twenty-two in 1613, only a few years before the issuing of the Book of Sports. This young nobleman “ usually rose every morning at five, and sometimes at four. When he first waked, his constant care was to cultivate communion with God, by offering up the first-fruits of the day and of his thoughts to the uncreated Majesty. So soon as dressed, he endeavoured to put his heart in tune for family worship, by reading a portion of Scripture ; after which, he prayed with his servants. This duty concluded, he spent about an hour in read­ ing some valuable book, calculated to inform his understanding, and to animate his graces. Calvin’s Institutions and Mr. Rogers’s Treatise were among the performances which he highly esteemed, and which he carefully studied. Before dinner and before supper his family were called together to wait on God in reading, singing, and prayer. After supper, prayer was repeated.” . . . On the Lord’s day, “ after evening sermon, two of his servants repeated in the family, before supper, the substance of that and the morn- 20 4 4 6 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. ing discourse, from notes which they had written at the times of preaching; and so great was his memory, that he himself would usually repeat more than they had committed to writing. He then entered the heads and principal passages of each sermon, in a plain paper book which he kept for that purpose, and afterwards dismissed his domestics with prayer, in which he had a very ex­ traordinary gift.” 1 The same spirit reigns half a century thereafter in the domestic circle at Broad Oak, and in many families about that time, both while they were in the Church of England, and when they had been ejected from its communion. The distinguished commenta­ tor, Matthew Henry, has given the following interesting account of the manner in which the Sabbath was spent in his father’s house. “ The Lord’s day he (the Eev. Philip Henry) called and counted the queen of days, the pearl of the week, and observed it accordingly. The Fourth Commandment intimates a special regard to be had to the Sabbath in families : ‘ thou and thy son, and thy daughter, etc.’ ‘ It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.’ In this, therefore, he was very exact, and abounded -in the work of the Lord in his family on that day. Whatever were the circumstances of his public opportunities (which varied, as we shall find afterwards), his family religion was the same : extraordinary sacrifices must never supersede the con­ tinual burnt-offering and his meat-offering, Num. xxviii. 15. His common salutation of his family or friends on the Lord’s day in the morning, was that of the primitive Christians : ‘ The Lord is risen, he is risen indeed;’ making it his chief business on that day to celebrate the memory of Christ’s resurrection ; and he would say sometimes, * Every Lord’s day is a true Christian’s Easter-day.’ He took care to have his family ready early on that day, and wyas larger in exposition and prayer on Sabbath mornings than on other days. He would often remember, that under the law the daily sacrifice was doubled on Sabbath days, two lambs in the morning, and two in the evening. He had always a particular subject for bis expositions on Sabbath morn­ ings, the harmony of the evangelists several times over, the Scrip­ ture prayers, Old Testament prophecies of Christ, 1 Christ the 1 Toplady’a Works, (1837), pp. 469, 470. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 4 7 true treasure ’ (so he entitled that subject), ‘ sought and found in the Old Testament.’ He constantly sung a Psalm after dinner, and another after supper on the Lord’s days. And in the even­ ing of the day his children and servants were catechized and ex­ amined in the sense and meaning of the answers in the catechism, that they might not say it (as he used to tell them) like a parrot, by rote. Then the day’s sermons were repeated, commonly by one of his children when they were grown up, and while they were with him ; and the family gave an account what they could remember of the word of the day, which he endeavoured to fasten upon them, as a nail in a sure place. In his prayers on the evening of the Sabbath, he was often more than ordinarily en­ larged, as one that found not only God’s service perfect freedom, but his work its own wages, and a great reward, not only after keeping, but (as he used to observe from Ps. xix. 11) in keeping God’s commandments— a present reward of obedience in obedience. In that prayer he was usually very particular, in praying for his family and all that belonged to it. It was a prayer he often put up, that we might have grace to carry it as a minister, and a minister’s wife, and a minister’s children, and a minister’s ser­ vant should carry it, that the ministry might in nothing be blamed. He would sometimes be a particular intercessor for the towns and parishes adjacent. How have I heard him, when he hath been in the mount with God, in a Sabbath evening prayer, wrestle with the Lord for Chester, and Shrewsbury, and Nantwich, and Wrex­ ham, and Whitchurch, etc., those nests of souls, wherein there are so many that cannot discern between their right hand and their left in spiritual things, etc. He closed his Sabbath work in his family with singing Ps. cxxxiv., and after it a solemn blessing.”1 Another half-century elapses, and the excellent Dr. Doddridge is found walking in the steps of Philip Henry : “ The Lord’s day was most strictly and religiously observed in his family; and after the public and domestic services of it, he often took them [his pupils] separately into his study, conversed with them con­ cerning the state of religion in their souls, and gave them suitable advice. Often on the Lord’s-day evening he discoursed seriously with them [his servants] by themselves, and prayed with them.” 'A 1 Lift of Mr. Philip Henry, pp. 74-76. 2 Life, by Orton, pp. 98, 132. 4 4 8 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. Dr. R W. Hamilton lias in eloquent strains described the old Puritan Sabbath with its domestic devotions morning and evening — and its public assemblies and worship. Of the latter, he says, “ Sermons full of thought and powerful in application, having much unity and closeness, with doctrine raised and improvement enforced, repaid the long-exacted attention. They knew not our miscellany of vocal praise, but breathed their gratitude and adora­ tion through the strains of the sweet singer of Israel. Public prayer was systematic, still various, abounding in intercession, such as the minister’s closet had indited, and his heart had already made his own.” Referring to the Sabbath evening counsels of a father and the instructions of a mother, to the catechism heard and the preaching reviewed, he observes, “ That made their gener­ ations strong. . . . Thus were they trained and formed. . . . In the change of all this wTe are weak.” He adds, “ Some of us knew the likenesses well. We have seen the counterparts. These customs had come down to us. Such were the families to which birth added us. Such were our fathers, and such the mothers who bore us. We declaim no inventions, we draw no pictures, we speak no unknown things. In them was reflected the Puritan race. In them those saints revived and stood up once more. In this resemblance but little degenerated, we may measure their worth, and as by a personal observation, fully know their doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience.”1 We have quoted, in p. 226, part of a description of an English Sabbath, as it was passed at a later period, for the purpose of showing that a sacred weekly day holily spent is not a day of gloom. We now give a few more sentences. “ It was a day truly honourable in our eyes, and marked as a season of sacred delights. Its various exercises, whether public or private, pro­ duced an exhilarating effect upon our minds, and never failed to set us some paces nearer the object of our supreme desires. It was a kind of transfiguration-day, shedding a mild glory upon every creature, and enabling us to view the concerns of time in connexion with those of eternity. . . . Many a joyful Sabbath have we thus spent together, especially during the latter years of our Joshua’s continuance with us. And now when his mother 1 Hone et Vindicias Sabbat, pp. 183, 185, 1S7. AFTER THE REFORMATION. 4 4 9 and I are disposed, on the return of these sacred seasons, to look with regret towards his vacant place, we endeavour to animate each other with the hope of shortly following our dearest son to the celebration of that eternal Sabbath above, of which we have enjoyed so many sweet anticipations here below.”1 It is said of the late Princess Charlotte and her husband, Prince Leopold, “ Their whole domestic habits were marked by sobriety and virtue. Respect for the Lord’s day formed a prominent fea­ ture in their domestic arrangements. Divine service was re­ gularly attended ; and the evening hours of the sacred day were employed in the perusal of pious writings, or in other exercises suited to its design.” 2 We add a few illustrations of a domestic Sabbath, as it once existed, and still exists in Scotland. Ruddiman, the distinguished grammarian, printer, and librarian of the Advocates’ Library, “ was frugal of his time, and moderate, both in his pleasures and amuse­ ments. His day was usually employed in the following manner. He rose early, and devoted the morning to study. During the sitting of the Court of Session, he used to attend the Advocates’ Library from ten till three. He commonly retired from dinner at four, except when it was necessary to show respect to friends. His evenings were generally spent in conversation with the learned. During the-decline of his age, when an amanuensis be­ came requisite, his day was spent somewhat differently. His first act of the morning was to kneel down, while his amanuensis read prayers. He lived chiefly in his library. A basin of tea was brought him for his breakfast; he dined about two o’clock ; and tea was again sent in to him a little after four. His amanuensis generally read to him seven hours a day, Sunday alone excepted, which, in the presence of his family, and with the help of the Rev. Mr. Harper, was dedicated to the service of God.”3 Of Pro­ fessor Lawson of Selkirk it is said by Dr. Belfrage, “ So different . 271. THEORIES TRIED. 507 accounts that can be best relied upon, the morals of the people were likewise the most healthy.” 1 Defoe writes thus of the state of Scottish morality in 1717 : “ The people are restrained in the ordinary practice of common immoralities, such as swear­ ing, drunkenness, slander, fornication, and the like. As to theft, murder, and other capital crimes, they come under the cognizance of the civil magistrates, as in other countries ; but, in those things which the Church has power to punish, the people being constantly and impartially prosecuted, they are thereby the more restrained, kept sober, and under government, and you may pass through twenty towns in Scotland without seeing any broil or hearing one oath in the streets ; whereas, if a blind man was to come from there into England, he shall know the first town he sets his foot in within the English border, by hearing the name of God blasphemed and profanely used even by the little children on the street.” 2 The same contrasts may be seen at other times and even in our own day. We shall be told, indeed, of particular vices which have brought a stigma upon the besf Sabbath-keep­ ing country in the world, and on some of its most God-fearing cities. No little exaggeration, it has been proved, has been em­ ployed on the subject— a natural resource of those who envy a high reputation, and hate a holy institution. Without enlarging on this part of the question, for which we cannot afford space, let a few facts relative to the morals of the cities referred to, and of a country parish, at different periods, serve to show that it is the neglect, not the observance of the Lord’s day, that ac­ counts for any real deterioration in the character of the people. Mr. Creech, well known in his day, and still remembered as an author, bookseller, and Lord Provost of Edinburgh, contri­ buted to the Statistical Account of Scotland some remarkable sketches, which were afterwards published in his Fugitive Pieces, of the modes of living, trade, manners, etc., of that city, as these appeared in the years 1763, 1783, 1793. The following are a few specimens :— “ In 1763 it was fashionable to go to church, and people were interested about religion. Sunday was strictly observed by all ranks as a day of devotion, and it was disgrace- i PriM-ipal Lee—Minutes of Evidence, p. 271. 3 Menunrs of the Church of Scotland (1844), p. 353. 5 0 8 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. ful to be seen on the streets during the time of public worship. Families attended church with their children and servants, and family worship was frequent. The collections at the church doors for the poor amounted yearly to £1500 and upwards. In 1783 attendance on church was greatly neglected, and particu­ larly by the men. Sunday was by many made a day of relaxa­ tion, and young people were allowed to stroll about at all hours. Families thought it ungenteel to take their domestics to church with them. The streets were far from being void of people in the time of public worship, and, in the evenings, were frequently loose and riotous, particularly owing to bands of apprentice boys and young lads. Family worship was almost disused. The collections at the church doors for the poor had fallen to £1000. In no respect were the manners of 1763 and 1783 more re­ markable than in the decency, dignity, and delicacy of the one period, compared with the looseness, dissipation, and licentious­ ness of the other. ^ Many people ceased to blush at what would formerly have been reckoned a crime. “ In 1763, masters took charge of their apprentices, and kept them under their eye in their own houses. In 1783, few masters would receive apprentices to stay in their houses, and yet from them an important part of succeeding society is to be formed. If they attended their hours of business, masters took no further charge. The rest of their time might be passed (as too frequently happens) in vice and debauchery, hence they become idle, insolent, and dishonest. In 1791, the practice had become still more pre­ valent. Reformation of manners must begin in families to be general or effectual. “ In 1763, the clergy visited, catechised, and instructed the families within their respective parishes, in the principles of morality, Christianity, and the relative duties of life. In 1783, visiting and catechising were disused (except by very few), and since continue to be so. Nor, perhaps, would the clergy now be received with welcome on such an occasion. If people do not choose to go to church, they may remain as ignorant as Hottentots, and the Ten Commandments be as little known as obsolete Acts of Parliament. Religion is the only tie that can restrain, in any degree, the licentiousness either of the rich or of THEORIES TRIED. 5 0 9 the lower ranks ; when that is lost, ferocity of manners and every breach of morality may be expected. ‘ Hoc fonte derivata, clades In patriam populumque fluxit.’ “ In 1763, house-breaking and robbery were extremely rare. Many people thought it unnecessary to lock their doors at night. In 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, and 1787, house-breaking, theft, and robbery were astonishingly frequent, and many of these crimes were committed by boys, whose age prevented them from being objects of capital punishment. In no respect was the sobriety and decorum of the lower ranks in 1763 more remarkable than by contrasting them with the riot and licentiousness of 1783, particularly on Sundays and holidays. The king’s birthday, and the last night of the year, were, in 1783, devoted to drunken­ ness^ folly, and riot, which in 1763 were attended with peace and harmony. “ In 1763, young ladies (even by themselves) might have walked through the streets of the city in perfect security, at any hour. No person would have interrupted or spoken to them. In 17 8 3, the mis­ tresses of boarding-schools found it necessary to advertise, that their young ladies were not permitted to go abroad without proper atten­ dants. In 1791, boys, from bad example at home, and worse abroad, had become forward and insolent. They early frequented taverns, and were soon initiated in folly and vice, without any religious principle to restrain them. It has been an error of twenty years, to precipitate the education of boys, and make them too soon men.”1 “ In 1763, the question respecting the morality of stage-plays was much agitated. By those who attended the theatre even without scruple, Saturday night was thought the most improper in the week for going to the play. Ip 1783, the morality of stage-plays, or their effects on society were not thought of. The most crowded houses were always on Saturday night. The cus­ tom of taking a box for the Saturday night through the season, was much practised by boarding mistresses, so that there could be no choice of the play, but the young ladies could only take what was set before them by the manager. The galleries never failed to i Edinburgh Fugitive Pieces, pp. 100-112 applaud what they formerly would have hissed, as improper in sentiment or decorum.1 “ In 1763, hairdressers were few, and hardly permitted to dress hair on Sundays ; and many of them voluntarily declined it. In 1783, hairdressers were more than tripled in number ; and their busiest day was Sunday.' In 1763, the revenue arising from the distillery in Scotland amounted to £4739, 18s. lOd.— in 1783, to £192,000.” 2 In the same work there is an account of a country parish as it was in the years 1763 and 1783. We give an extract. “ In 1763, all persons attended divine worship on Sunday. There were only four Seceders in the parish. Sunday was regularly and religiously observed. In 1783, there is such a disregard of pub­ lic worship and ordinances, that few attend divine worship with that attention which was formerly given. Ignorance prevails, al­ though privileged with excellent instructions in public sermons, in examination, and in visiting from house to house by the pastor. When the form of religion is disregarded, surely the power of it is near dissolution. In 1763, few in this parish were guilty of the breach of the third commandment. The name of God was reverenced and held sacred. In 1783, the third commandment seems to be almost forgotten, and swearing abounds. I may say the same of all the rest of the ten, as to public practice. The decay of religion and growth of vice, in this parish, is very re­ markable within these twenty years.” 3 Let us now take the case of Glasgow, where, after allowing for over-statement, it is admitted that a rapidly accumulating popula­ tion, including vast hordes of immigrants from various parts of the world, are in many instances regardless of the law's of sobriety. There was a time, hov'ever, when our western capital, and Scot­ land at large, w'ere eminent not*only for temperance, but for gene­ ral moral excellence. An Englishman, who sojourned in Glasgow in 1703, testifies that “ all the while he was there he never saw any drunk, nor heard any swrear, and in all the inns of the road to that part of Scotland they had family worship performed.”4 Another Englishman, Defoe, as we have seen, bears a remarkable i Edinburgh Fugitive Pieces, p. 113. 2 Ibid. pp. 78, 79. * Ibid. p. 142 * Works of Matthew Henry (1853), voL i p. 585. 5 1 0 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. THEORIES TRIED. 5 1 1 attestation to Scottish morality in 1717. It will surely not be pretended that the Sabbath is better observed or better enforced in 1862 than it was in 1703 and 1717— years comprehended in the period which, according to Principal Lee, was the halcyon time of Scotland’s weekly holy day. The reverse is the fact. What then has the Sabbath to do with the immorality of Glas­ gow 1 The commercial metropolis of Scotland “ flourished” once “ by the preaching of the Word,” but she has deteriorated in our day because so many refuse to hear the Word. Vice has kept pace, not with the observance, but with the neglect of the Lord’s day. But there is another contrast which must not be forgotten in this argument— that between the distinguished excellence of the many who honour the day, and the moral and physical degrada­ tion of the too numerons class who despise it. Intemperance and profaneuess are both cause and effect. Sabbath-breakers and drunkards are usually one and the same class of men ; while it is true everywhere that the men who most respect the institution are not only the most temperate members of society, but the most moral in all respects in their conduct, and almost the only persons who do anything in their localities for promoting sobriety and every virtue among their neighbours. It is among those that devoutly regard the sacred day in our large cities that we find the in­ dividuals -who dive into the darkest, filthiest, and most dangerous haunts of wickedness, with the view of reclaiming the inhabitants from ignorance, wretchedness, and crime, or who, while most of others care not for the neglected and profligate except to scowl upon them as they cross their path, patiently labour in the self- denied and arduous work of instructing the young that they may rescue them from ruin, and guide them in the way of purity and happiness. It is from among them, too, that those go forth who brave the hazards, or suffer the privations of a residence in unpro- pitious climes and among savage tribes, solely for the spiritual good of their fellow-creatures. What scheme, indeed, for en­ lightening the ignorant, reforming the immoral, relieving poverty, abating disease, and comforting sorrow, has not among its princi- ♦ pal patrons, and most active auxiliaries, the very men who arc charged as demoralizing their fellow-citizens for no other reason than their fidelity to the Divine and benignant law of the Sab­ 5 1 2 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. bath, and so charged by the persons who owe it to the Sabbath­ keeping and other excellences of the objects of their abuse that they are preserved and in peace amidst the elements of destruc­ tion. Is it possible that a law which produces such fruits of mercy and kindness can be a bad law ? The imputation of hypocrisy to men who are the friends of such a law, and bright illustrations of its moral excellence, is itself a confirmation of our views, for certainly, if those who prefer such a charge had enjoyed the mental discipline of the Sabbath, or bad imbibed its spirit, they could not have been so ignorant of language and character, so wanting in courtesy and candour, or so destitute of prudence and self-respect, as to apply to the most upright and useful members of society a term so notoriously, wickedly, and stupidly inapposite. But we feel that we have said more than enough of these accu­ sations and their fabricators— and we conclude the chapter with a passage relating to Sweden, which not only adds to the proof of the fallacy of the views that we have been combating ; but gives a striking warning against the slightest countenance to “ doing evil that good may come “ We have frequently of late been told by a certain class of philanthropists,” says the Rev. James Lums- den, “ that our Scottish habits of Sabbath observance are the main cause of the intemperance of our land, and that the true and effectual method of promoting sobriety is to give facilities and en­ couragement to our hard-working artisans, to escape from their homes by railway and steam-boat on Sunday afternoons and enjoy the healthful atmosphere and instructive landscapes of the country. It is wrell to inquire what success this experiment of employing Satan ‘ to cast out Satan,’ has had in a country where it has been carried on for a period of satisfactory length, and in circum­ stances peculiarly favpurable, in a climate very similar to our own, among a people of the same race, and free from the disturbing element of the Sabbatarian denunciations of the pulpit and the press. And what has been the effect of this holiday Sabbath upon the sobriety of the nation 1 Why, that by the confession of the Swedes themselves, their nation is the most intemperate in Europe that in a country where manufacturers have not drawn a promis- 1 As a proof of this, the recent Parliament has increased the duty on the manufac­ ture of ardent spirits two-and-thirty fold. THEORIES TRIED. 0 1 3 cuous population into over-grown villages and crowded towns, where incentives to vice, arising from high wages, rapid prosperity, and commercial bustle and over-working, are absent, where the people are almost as thinly spread as in cur Highlands, the rate of consumption of ardent spirits is higher than in this country ; and that a region, where primitive purity as well as primitive quiet might be supposed to have found a refuge, is pervaded by the in­ temperance of our neglected lanes and luxurious cities.”1 i Sweden.; its Religious State and Prospects, 1855, pp. 12-14. 5 1 4 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. CHAPTER Y. THEORIES AND ARGUMENTS TRIED BY THE DOCTRINE AND LAW OF REVELATION. When it has been already proved, on the one hand, by the amplest evidence of Reason, Revelation, and History, that the Sabbath, according to one of its theories, is of Divine original and authority, and an indispensable blessing to mankind, and, on the other, that rival theories and schemes, as tested by the principles of the. Divine Government, and by experience, are destitute of worth, power, and benefit, it may seem superfluous to prosecute the contest. But our opponents endeavour to find in Scripture support for opinions which have failed to gain the suffrages of the greatest and best of men, or to Supply any satisfying creden­ tials of their success. To Scripture they appeal, and to Scripture the very tower of our strength, it can be no disadvantage for us to go. But the most conflicting doctrines and practices have been held to be scriptural— and it is possible for persons of any party to come to the Word of God, and because they are proud, to be sent empty away. If we would derive instruction and guidance from that Word, we must understand its meaning, and for that purpose follow the rules according to which it demands to be interpreted, and which commend themselves to the reason and common sense of mankind. 'Let us, therefore, enunciate some of these Scrip­ tural, rational, and common-sense rules, and apply each rule as we proceed for enabling us to decide on the claims of various theories and arguments, which have been put forth on our subject. We do not profess to dictate to others, but we cannot, in this part of / the volume, argue with those who appeal to Revelation, if they THEORIES TRIED. 515 nevertheless reject its authoritative prescription of the manner in which its meaning is to be ascertained. First Rule.— It is necessary that we recognise the Old and New Testaments as alone constituting the Word of God. No writing, besides those in the Protestant canon, and no oral tradi­ tion, have any claim to be received as parts of Divine revelation. Whatever, therefore, Rome advances from tradition to justify her assumed right to change the day of the Sabbath, or to appoint holy days of her own, has to us nothing of the character of “ proofs of holy writ.” Second Rule.— We must receive the Word of God, thus defined and complete in its parts, as a Revelation divinely perfect in its whole character. It is true of the Old Testament as of the New, that it is “ given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteous­ ness ; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 1 To neglect either division of the Bible, or to magnify it at the expense of the other, would betray so utter a misconception of the whole book, as must preclude the discovery of truth on every one of its great subjects. Let this treatment be shown to a volume of human production, and the injustice no less than the folly of such procedure would be seen and condemned by all. But in deciding with respect to the Sabbath and other matters, there are those who are chargeable with this partiality, so directly in opposition to the demands of Scripture and of reason, and who, therefore, must fail of arriving at the knowledge of the Divine mind and will. These persons conceive that the selection of a particular people to be the objects of Divine favour, and the depositaries of the Divine oracles, is a circumstance with which we have nothing to do, further than as a matter of curiosity or of historical interest. How many regard the people of Israel as if they had been the inhabitants of another planet, and their system of religion as if it had almost nothing in common with the Christian! How many, look upon the Old Testament as an obsolete part of Divine revelation, which it is unnecessary to read for instruction of life and manners— whose Psalms are not to be sung— whose principles apply not to us— i 2 Tim iii. 10, ‘-7. 516 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. •whose worthies are no models— whose spirit is unchristian ! No­ thing could be more remote from the truth— nothing more daringly impious if it- were not so vastly ignorant. Judaism was a Divine, wise, holy, good, sanctifying, saving system of religion— substan­ tially one with the Christian. It was a local and stationary, not like Christianity a moving, circulating light, but it was the means of preserving religion in the world, and it steadily bore testimony to the existence of the one living and true God, the God of mercy and salvation, while its privileges were open to all Gentiles who abandoned idolatry, and acceded to the profession of the true faith. - Considered even as to their transitory peculiarities, the Jews were appointed to serve great ends with respect both to the surrounding world and to future ages. But, more than this, the Jews were men who, in common with others, stood in need of a Saviour, and of a law to guide them as rational and immortal beings. To them, accordingly, a Saviour -was made known by typical representations and the preaching of the prophets— to them a moral law was given. There are, doubtless, matters in the Old Testament that are not a rule for us, but so are there in the New. There are many things in both that directly concern all, and there are many things of this universal application in each that are not in the other. That we may know the whole of our faith and duty, we must repair to both, and along with other parts of doctrine and practice search for the true character and obligations of a weekly rest in the earlier as well as in the later revelation. We have as much to do with what Genesis testifies respecting the Sabbath as we have to do with what it declares concerning the institution and law of marriage. What was moral in Judaism is as truly binding upon us as it was obligatory upon the Jews. This rule of interpreting Scripture, therefore, while it sanctions the perpetual obligation of a seventh day’s rest and worship, sets aside the notion that the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise, and its promulgation at Sinai, had no respect to mankind in general, or if they had respect to us, that it was only by way of an analogy which directed but did not bind. The perfection of Revelation has other bearings on our subject. It teaches inquirers that, as its thoughts and reasonings have come forth from infinite wisdom, and as its very words are “ the words of the Lord, wrhich are pure words, as silver tried in a fur­ nace of earth, purified seven times,” they must be reverently exa­ mined, not wrested, not instructed by the reader, but listened to, that he may receive whatever instruction and impression they are designed to impart. If we would not defeat the great end of lan­ guage, which is the transmission of thought, and if we would not dishonour a Divine composition, which, as in everything else, so in adaptedness to its design of conveying salutary and indispensable information to “ the common people,” and to the poor as well as to the learned and the rich, must transcend the literature of earth, we ought to be persuaded that holy men, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, could not utter unintelligible words, or express one thing when they meant another. And yet how confidently do some who give evidence that they have not attentively considered what they profess to have read, pronounce on this and that passage of Scripture, and how deliberately do others assert a particular view of a text to be just, when they ought to know that they are forcing it into the service of a favour­ ite theory ! One of the most remarkable instances of the bold freedom with which certain writers have treated the sacred text, is furnished in the attempt to set aside the idea of a primitive Sabbath, by the notion that the mention of it in Genesis ante­ dates the institution by thousands of years. Let us again present the beautifully simple and clear words of the record “ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made • and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified i t ; be­ cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” 1 It might be presumed that no one could come to the perusal of this earliest notice of the Sabbath, with the view of transferring the meaning of the words to his mind, rather than of imparting his own previous impressions to the words, without learning that the consecration and observance of the seventh day were immedi­ ate consequences of the Divine rest. So plain a matter is this to all who read only for instruction, that one would feel as if an i Gen. ii. 1-3. 23 THEORIES TRIED. 5 1 7 apology were needed for the apparent childishness of elevating into a formal proposition so obvious a truism. But certain writers have so insulted the understandings of mankind, and so trifled with the sacred page, as to affirm that a space of 2500 years inter­ vened between the day of rest, and the actual appointment of the institution by which it was to be commemorated, the order of time being departed from for the sake of the connexion of subject; and have on this mere assertion, so gratuitous and wild, built theories and systems for guiding the faith and conduct of the world in some of the most important duties and concerns of men. The view which the words as clearly indicate as language ever ex­ pressed thought or fact, and which has commended itself to the common sense of the generality of readers, is to the effect that the seventh day on which God rested, was the identical day which he blessed and sanctified, its transactions being as immediately con­ secutive to those of the sixth day as these were to the proceedings of the fifth. If the Creator performed the works of the six days on these days, He must have rested, sanctified, and blessed the seventh day on the seventh day. If the acts of the seventh day were not done on the seventh day, neither were the acts of the six days done on the six days. In other words, there was neither creation nor Sabbath till the children of Israel had encamped in the wilderness of Sin ! What is the conclusion to which the theory in question would shut ns up ? It is, that a sacred writer has expressed himself in such terms as necessarily to lead us into error, from which there is no escape but into the domain of absurdity. How low those conceptions of the character of holy writ, which could inspire the proleptic dream, or how forlorn the hopes of a cause which has driven its friends to an expedient so foolish as well as so allied to the irreverent and profane ! Let us offer a second example of the forced and unnatural con­ struction which has been perpetrated on the narrative of creation. We refer to the interpretation which makes the six days of the Creator’s working denote periods of long duration. The good sense of its most ingenious defender, Faber, led him ultimately to discard an opinion, which, however unintentionally on the part of its supporters, is in reality a libel on the simplest and most per­ fect style of historical writing. It is true that the term “ day t h e s a b b a t h d e f e n d e d . is employed in Scripture in different meanings, some of which occur within the compass of a few Sentences in the account of the creation, but in none of the cases is the sense at all obscure. “ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Each of the days of creation being defined to include the light and the darkness must therefore have been a period of twenty-four hours, the time on which the earth performs one revolution upon its axis. The seventh day, though wanting the definition given of the others, yet as belonging to a numbered series having the same common name of day, must, as nothing is said to the con­ trary, have been of the same duration as its predecessors. And when the sacred waiter, having informed us that the heavens and the earth were finished in six of those periods, adds, “ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,” where the wTord comprises six common days, there is no difficulty in distinguish­ ing “ day” in the summary, from “ day” in the details, and in perceiving that it denotes generally a time. “ In what manner the creation was conducted,” says Bishop Horsley, “ is a question about a fact, and, like all questions about facts, must be deter­ mined, not by theory, but by testimony ; and if no testimony were extant, the fact must remain uncertain. But the testimony of the sacred historian is peremptory and explicit. No expressions could be found in any language, to describe a gradual progress of the work of six successive days, and the completion of it on the sixth, in the literal and common sense of the word ‘ day,’ more definite and unequivocal than those employed by Moses; and they who seek or admit figurative expositions of such expressions as these, seem to be not sufficiently aware, that it is one thing to write a history, and quite another to compose riddles. The expressions in which Moses describes the days of the creation, literally rendered, are these : When he has described the first day’s work, he says— ‘ And there was evening, and there was morning, one day ■’ when he has described the second day’s work, ‘There was evening, and there was morning, a second day •’ when he has described the third day’s work, ‘ There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.’ Thus, in the progress of his narrative, at the end of THEORIES TRIED. 5 1 9 520 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. each day’s work, he counts up the days which had passed off from the beginning of the business; and, to obviate all doubt what portion of time he meant to denote by the appellation of ‘ a day,’ he describes each day of which the mention occurs as consisting of one evening and one morning, or, as the Hebrew words literally import, of the decay of light and the return of it. By what de­ scription could the word 1 day’ be more expressly limited to its literal and common meaning, as denoting that portion of time which is measured and consumed by the earth’s revolution on her axis 1 That this revolution was performed in the same space of time in the beginning of the world as now, I would not over con­ fidently affirm ; but we are not at present concerned in the reso­ lution of that question : a day, whatever was its space, was still the same thing in nature— a portion of time measured by the same motion, divisible into the same seasons as morning and noon, even­ ing and midnight, and making the like part of longer portions of time measured by other motions. The day was itself marked by the vicissitudes of darkness and light; and so many times re­ peated, it made a month, and so many times more a year. For six such days, God was making the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that therein i3, and rested on the seventh day. This fact, clearly established by the sacred writer’s testimony, in the literal meaning of these plain words, abundantly evinces the perpetual importance and propriety of consecrating one day in seven to the public worship of the Creator.” 1 To these remarks of an emi­ nent scholar, we add the words of an able geologist as well as ’“’’theologian :— “ We have then six days, which I conceive there is good reason to regard as six natural days, six rotations of our ] globe upon its axis, each in about twenty-four hours.” 2 Third Rule.— In examining particular passages of Scripture, we must consider them in connexion both with their context and with other passages relating to the same topics. Such a process of induction is due even to the humblest of writers. And it is due still more to inspired men, whose words, purer and more precious than gold, we must carefully gather and generalize if we would know what the great Teacher would have us believe and 1 Sennon xxiii. 2 Dr. J. Pye Smith in “ Course of Lectures to Young Men” (1838), p. 18. THEORIES TRIED. 521 do. We must compare spiritual things with spiritual. Of the extent to which the testimony of Revelation on the subject before us has been misrepresented by the disregard of this undoubted canon, the following are illustrations :— A noted case occurs in the attempt to set aside the primaeval Sabbath on the ground, that after the notice in the second chap­ ter of Genesis no further mention of a hallowed day is made by the historian till he has proceeded to record the miraculous pro­ vision of the manna. “ If the Sabbath had been instituted at the time of the creation, as the words in Genesis may seem at first sight to import, and if it had been observed all along, from that time to the departure of the Jews out of Egypt, a period of about two thousand five hundred years ; it appears unaccountable that no mention of it, no occasion of even the obscurest allusion to it, should occur, either in the general history of the world before the call of Abraham, which contains, we admit, only a few memoirs of its early ages, and those extremely abridged ; or, which is more to be wondered at, in that of the lives of the first three Jewish patriarchs, which in many parts of the account, is sufficiently cir­ cumstantial and domestic.” 1 It is not for man to decide on the manner in which a Divine Revelation should be made. It belongs to him to examine the actual revelation, under the conviction that both in its matter and in its mode, it must be perfect. Instead, therefore, of indulging in uncertain speculations on such a circumstance as that referred to, and vTe must say, exaggerated, by Dr. Paley, we ought to have recourse to the light, if any, that has been shed upon it by other parts of Scripture. If we would do justice to the character of Manasseh, we must read not only of his monstrous wickedness, as recorded in the second book of Kings, but of his penitence and re­ formation, as related in the second book of Chronicles. It would'* be an unwarranted inference from the biography of Solomon if we conceived that his sun had gone down under a dark cloud of apostasy, for, turning to the Ecclesiastes, we see the luminary set­ ting in cloudless and mild glory. If we did not trace the sacred \ history far beyond the close of the Pentateuch, we should not be aware that the true law of marriage, which, from the hardness of i Paley’s Works, lSmo, voL ir. pp. 290, 291. 522 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. Jewish hearts, had been for four thousand years in abeyance, was finally re-asserted in its original purity and obligation. In the passage which we have cited, the eminent author has not entirely neglected to compare one part of Scripture with an­ other. But his induction is both faulty and incomplete. It is faulty. He has examined the history in Genesis, but lie has inverted the universally admitted order of procedure iu com­ paring the separate parts, having employed the obscure to de­ fine the clear, the negative to illustrate the positive, or having, in other words, instead of interpreting the subsequent silence of the historian by his simple narrative of the Creation, interpreted •the narrative by a silence, his construction of which is a mere con­ jecture. If the terms in which the alleged appointment is couched had been dark and doubtful, the omission of reference to it afterwards might be an element in determining their import, but the fact of the appointment has been put on record in the clear and indubitable language of inspiration, and no such omission can alter a fact, which must stand for ever. Had the author of Gene­ sis never more mentioned the Sabbath, although this circumstance could not have annihilated the fact of the appointment, it would have afforded a plausible ground for the doubt whether the evi­ dently instituted day of rest and worship had not been permitted to expire. But the silence was ultimately broken, faintly by the still small voice of the descending manna, and soon after, effec­ tually, by the thunders of Sinai. The true meaning of silence, therefore, in this as in many other instances, is consent. It inti­ mates that nothing had transpired from which it could justly be inferred that the conveyance of a Sabbatic boon had been with­ drawn, or that the imposition of Sabbatic obligations had been cancelled. It conveys even more than this, and emphatically, as on numerous occasions, implies the superfluousness of utterance. But Dr. Paley’s induction is also incomplete. Had his survey been more comprehensive, and had he thus performed a simple act of justice to the inspired writers and to truth, he would have found that the circumstance made use of by him to abridge the pedigree, limit the extent, and weaken the authority, of a confessedly be­ nignant institute, which every friend of morals and humanity should desire to see surrounded and fortified by every Divine sano- THEOEIES TBIED. 523 tion, is in entire agreement with the history of other great enact­ ments and facts, and with the general history of the Sabbath itself. How fares it with various institutiQns, laws, and events 1 Of the Fall of man nothing is said for the period during which the Sabbath receives no particular notice. That momentous event is trace! only in the sins and miseries of the race, just as the appoint­ ment of the weekly rest is seen in its results— in the prevalent re­ gard to the septenary number, and distribution of time, and in the indications of social religion, with its priesthood, tithes, set places and seasons of worship; circumstances which were the natural sequences of the Creator’s working and rest, and which cannot be accounted for but on the supposition of that prior Divine ex­ ample and arrangement. Was the account of the Fall in the beginning of Genesis the merq intimation of a destined or prospec­ tive event, as it is alleged the account of the Sabbath was 1 An affirmative answer would be as reasonable in the one case as in the other. The announcement of Redemption was indeed a pre­ diction, but in harmony with other facts we find that the greatest of all events, after an early and obscure notice, is hardly again mentioned for the long period of two thousand five hundred years. . “ Although particular instances of the observance of the Sabbath by the old patriarchs, could not be given and evinced, yet we ought no more on that account to deny that they did observe it, than we ought to deny their faith in the promised Seed, because it is nowhere expressly recorded in the story of their lives.” 1 How scanty the references in Genesis to the creation if we ex­ cept the first and second chapters ! The observance of the ordin­ ance of circumcision is never once alluded to between the times of Joshua and John the Baptist. There is no notice of the Passover from the date of Deuteronomy xvi. 2, to the days of Isaiah. We have already adverted to the long-continued omission of any asser-1 tion of the true law of marriage. The Sabbatical year is during t a space of nine hundred years passed over ill silence. And not one of the laws of the Decalogue except the sixth, is ever formally announced till they are promulgated from Sinai, although we have i Owen on Sab., E x trc . 3d., sect. 37. 5 2 4 THE SABBATH DEPENDED. evidence that they were obligatory and known. “ Excepting Jacob’s supplication at Bethel, scarcely a single allusion to prayer is to be found in all the Pentateuch ; yet, considering the eminent piety of the worthies recorded in it, we cannot doubt the frequency of their devotional exercises.”1 How “ unaccountable” on Dr. Paley»s principle, such intervals of neglected reference, if the in­ stitutions and laws were really appointed and observed, and if the events actually took place ! But notwithstanding the silence of history, we know that these were all veritable transactions. And such also must have been the early institution of a day of sacred rest. The obscurity which for a time rested on the fortunes of the Sabbath ;s, moreover, in coincidence with its own general history. In the account of the time from Moses to Elisha, when the Jewish ritual and laws were in all their vigour, and the record of events was so full, “ no mention of” the institution, “ no occasion of even the slightest allusion to it,” occurs. And yet, as Archdeacon Stopford observes, “ That was a much longer period of history than we have of the patriarchal age.” 2 Dr. Paley is satisfied with the evidence in the New Testament for a Christian Sabbath, but that evidence does not consist in the number of notices or even allusions on the subject, which are few and scattered. It is only, indeed, in such cases as the introduction of new economies, or the necessary exposure of flagrant perversions, neglects, or dese­ crations of the sacred rest by the professors of the true religion, that the mention of it is at all particular, as at the Creation, the descent of the manna, the giving of the Law, the charges preferred against Israel by the prophets, the predictions by the same per­ sons of the nature and glory of the Christian dispensation, and the vindication by our Lord of the Sabbath law from the abuses of Jewish tradition and superstition. Unless there are such de­ mands for specific remark, it is the practice of the inspired writer’s to maintain an entire abstinence on the subject, as, for example, in the time following the transactions of Sinai, or to make those in­ cidental references to it, as in 2 Kings iv. 23, which the relation of other facts renders necessary. That there are circumstances throughout the history of the period from the Creation to the l H o ld e n on th e Christian Sabbath, p. 37. s Scripture Account of the Sabbath, p. 43. Exodus, which imply the appointment of a Sabbath, has already been adverted to ; but even on the supposition of the absence of all allusion to any such institution during that long period, the method of Revelation, comprehensively viewed, precludes the in­ ference that it is unnoticed, either because it had been abrogated, or because it had never been appointed. The argument, therefore, of Dr. Paley is disproved, as it leads to conclusions which, besides being contrary to “ the seeming im­ port,” as he allows, “ of the words in Genesis,” or, as ought rather to be said, to their only possible meaning, are discounte­ nanced by the analogy in Scripture of cases in which the existence of Sabbatic and other institutions and laws is unquestionable, and which would, in fact, be as fatal to their authority as to the claims of a primaeval day of rest. The argument, in other words, by proving too much, is utterly useless for its purpose, and forms another evidence of the weakness of the cause which it is brought to support. Rather let the blank in the history of the Sabbath, of which so much has been made, be permitted to remain “ unaccountable,” than be explained by wresting from-its true meaning a sacred narrative of surpassing simplicity and clearness. May it not, however, be accounted for in a legitimate way 1 In some preced­ ing remarks it has been traced to a principle or rule in revelation, that there is for inspired as for other men, “ a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” But this rule itself has reasons, which it discloses in the instances in which it is applied to regu­ late both the omissions and notices of the Sabbath. In circum­ stances such as those of Cain, who went out from the presence of the Lord, and became the father and founder of a godless race, it is unnecessary to specify the disappearance of any particular in­ stitution, when all have been swallowed up in the vortex of a general irreligion. It is different wdth a people like the Jews, who were banished to Babylon on account partly of their neglect of Sabbatic privileges, and of whom it is natural to record both Jerusalem’s “ remembrance, in the days of her affliction and misery, of her pleasant things in the days’of old,” as contrasted with her Sabbaths now mocked, her sanctuary violated, and her bread taken away, and Jeremiah’s lamentation over the fcrgotten 23* 5 2 6 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. solemn feasts and Sabbatlis in Zion. When, on the other hand, the institution is generally respected by a pious race, like the de­ scendants of Seth, it would be as superfluous to relate the fact as it would be formally to announce the continued shining of the sun ; and where individuals obey the law of the Sabbath in their hearts and in the privacies of their homes, a chariness in the dis­ closure of such matters is only in keeping with the character of good men who are not forward to divulge their religious experience, and with the spirit, too, of the sacred penmen, who usually draw a i veil over such scenes, choosing, except in a particular case, as of David, who must sacrifice in the Psalms his private feelings for the public good, to present their worthies in the attitude rather of public action for God and man than of personal devotion. That the sacred writers dwell on certain matters of truth and conduct still more than on the weekly rest, and refer to the observance of it and of other institutions as of no avail without the faith and love .of the heart, and the obedience of the life, are clear indications that it is only a means to the higher end of salvation and moral ex­ cellence. And yet that.they do not thereby prejudice the institution itself is no less manifest. Jsaiah and our Lord, who unsparingly denounce the substitution of ordinances and forms for faith and holy character, are careful to assert the authority and true designs of the Sabbath. When the spirit of the world encroaches on its limits and duties, it is seen that piety and morals are endangered in another form, and it is now the time for an Amos to sound the alarm to those who long for the cessation of its brief hours that they may return to the congenial occupation of “ setting forth wheat.” The mention of it in the first and last books of Scripture, and in intervening ones of various dates, the particularity with which it is noticed at the introduction of all the great changes in the forms of religious polity, and the ancient predictions of its prevalence in the last days, all proclaim its great and permanent importance. And when we add that it is frequently referred to incidentally, and that its names occur nearly a hundred times in the Bible, it will appear that it has not been without a proportionate share of attention in a volume which is not large, and comprehends the records of some four thousand years, with predictions extend­ ing to thousands more. THEORIES TRIED. 5 2 7 CHAPTER VI. THEORIES AND ARGUMENTS TRIED BY THE DOCTRINE AND LAW OF REVELATION—co n tin u ed .' Let us now apply the rule which Dr. Paley has overlooked, and we shall find that there are references in various parts of Scripture to a primitive Sabbath which not only confirm the com mon view of the narrative in Genesis ii. 1-3, but, by the incidental way in which they are made, show how unnecessary the sacred writers deemed it to unfold and fortify the obvious meaning of the historian. 1. One of the references is to be found in the account of the giving of the manna. The children pf Israel had, in their jour­ neying from Egypt, reached-the wilderness of Sin, when they charged Moses and Aaron with bringing them into so inhospitable a region for the purpose of “ killing them with hunger.” God informed Moses that He was to “ rain bread from heaven, that the people should gather a certain rate every day, that on the sixth day they should prepare what they brought in, and that it should be twice as much as they gathered daily. The rulers having reported to Moses this double quantity as “ an accomplished fact,” he replied, “ This is that which the Lord hath said, To­ morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. It is im­ possible that this last expression could have been' employed if there had been no preceding institution of the Sabbath, for in this case there would have been no idea in the minds of the rulers that corresponded with the word “ Sabbath, and no fact in their memories of any such observance as is intimated in the phrase, “ the rest of the holy Sabbath.” The rulers, however, ask .no explanation, and Moses gives none either then or next day, when he says, “ To-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord. The ordinance, .'528 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. therefore, existed before this time, and its name must have been a household word. Let us now look at the arrangement of this and the preceding history as it appears to readers in all subsequent time. They have seen, in the beginning of the second chapter of Genesis, a notice of the seventh day as sanctified and blessed, and also the next express mention of such a day in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. They have found the latter pointing to a pre-existent institution, and have turned to the former as the only account of such a thing in the previous history. They have identified the two. If this be a mistake, they have of necessity fallen into it, not only from the want of any words to guard them against the error, but from the manner in which the historian has arranged his materials and expressed" his ideas. The mistake, accordingly, is general, only a few learned men, who had a pur­ pose to serve, having escaped it. If we would not impute to a sacred writer literary inability or intentional deception, we have ho alternative but to believe that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation. 2. Within a few weeks after the transactions in the wilderness of Sin,— for the weekly reckoning of time had not been lost in Egypt, — the following words were uttered from Sinai: “ Kemember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.” The language reduplicates on the earliest notice of tie seventh day’s rest, and in two distinct forms establishes the antiquity of the institution. It refers to a pre­ viously appointed and understood holy day, the only account of the origin and object of which is given in Genesis ii. ; and it deter­ mines the duty of observing it to have been binding from the beginning, for it is not said, as it would if the obligation had been new. “ Wherefore the Lord blesseth the Sabbath-day and halloweth it,” but “ Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hal­ lowed it.” It is the Sabbath-day, therefore, not merely as ob­ served and confirmed at the giving of the manna, and mentioned abruptly, and without explanation or reasons in Exodus xvi., but as originated at the creation and described in Genesis, that is com­ manded to be kept in sacred remembrance. 3. We arrive at the same conclusion respecting the original of the Sabbath by comparing the words of Genesis with a passage ip the Epistle to the Hebrews, The writer of that Epistle has THEORIES TRIED. 529 been warning the Christian converts from Judaism against the unbelief wrhich excluded their fathers from the rest in the pro­ mised land, and which would make them fall short of another rest promised to themselves. This could not be the rest of Canaan, which was now past. Nor could it, he says, be the rest of the seventh day, because this rest immediately followed the creation, and could not therefore remain to be entered into: “ For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest : although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For lie spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this- wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” “ There re- maiueth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Without recurring to the service otherwise rendered to the cause of the Christian Sabbath by the argument and language of the apostle which has already been considered, let it suffice in this place to say, that they could have no bearing or meaning, if the rest of the seventh day had not subsisted and been enjoyed from the beginning of time. 4. The self-evident sense of the history in Gen. ii. 1-3 is con­ firmed by our Lord, when he says, “ The Sabbath was made for man.” Let another of those expedients to which the opponents of a primaeval Sabbath have been driven in support of their cause, be exhibited for a little in the concentrated light of Scripture. Some have maintained, that the appropriation by Jehovah of the seventh day to beneficent and sacred use contemplated His own good and His own observance, not a benefit to be enjoyed and a service to be performed by man. That He rested on the first seventh day, and was refreshed or satisfied with His work of creation, and that the work and the rest were designed for the ultimate and highest end of His own glory, we readily acknowledge. But the direct purpose of the whole was the good of human beings. For man was all this done, and “ for our sakes, no doubt, this is written.” This purpose of the Divine procedure neither excluded the benefit of other creatures as a subordinate design, nor interfered with the ultimate end of the Creator’s glory, for which man himself and 2 L 630 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. all other beings were made, but was rather tributary to both. As to the Sabbath, the connexion of the words in the narrative of the creation ought to leave no one in doubt that the immediate design of its appointment was the happiness of mankind. When we consider that the work of the six days consisted in the provid­ ing of a residence for man, with everything in it to supply his wants, as well as bright luminaries hung over it to give him light, t6 be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years, and that to man was given dominion over every living thing that moved on the earth— a grant renewed in some respects to Noah and his sons, when, as the representatives of the race, they took possession of the renewed world— we cannot avoid the obvious conclusion, that the proceedings of the seventh day were in like manner designed for the direction and good of human beings. The sanctifying aud the blessing of the day must have respected the same being, a being sentient as well as capable of having a time set apart for him ; but Jehovah needed not a day for His own holy use, and could receive no blessing from such a day. And when we extend our induction beyond the words in Genesis— when we consider the great things recorded in other parts of Scripture as done by the Almighty for our race— in the donation to them of the earths-in the co-operation of all events “ for good to them who love” Him— in His preference before all temples, before that even of the whole material universe, of “ the upright heart and pure”— in the pre­ paration for every one who faithfully serves Him in this world, of a seat with Himself on the throne of heaven— in writing to us the great things of His law— above all, in His manifesting Him­ self in human nature for man’s redemption,— it appears to be only like Himself,— having occupied six days in a work which He could have performed in an instant of time, to rest on the seventh, as an example of order, activity, and repose to us, and to appoint a day of special blessing and sanctity for human happiness and guidance. To this meaning of the Creator’s conduct, so transparent in itself, and so entirely in harmony with all His other procedure, the Redeemer has set His seal in the words of the Fourth Com­ mandment, and in His memorable saying, “ The Sabbath was made for man.” Our rule, in like manner, satisfactorily disposes of certain philo­ THEOEIES TEIED. 531 logical objections which are advanced against the authority of the Lord’s day. The friends of the seventh-day Sabbath, by dwelling so much on certain idiomatic expressions in the original text of Scripture, show how much they regard their explanations of these phrases as among the strongholds of their system. In order to get rid of the Lord’s day, they endeavour to show that the ex­ pression p a crafifiaTiov, rendered in our Bibles 11 the first day of the week,” cannot refer to this day, but signifies “ one of the Sabbaths,” or “ one day of the week.” But what Mark and the other evangelists call p ra crafifiaTuiv, the former designates npoTg va.fiB6.T0V) thus determining the meaning of both expressions to be the same, the first day of the week. The females who designed to embalm the body of Jesus did not proceed to fulfil their inten­ tion till after the Sabbath, or seventh day, was over, for it is said, “ They rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment,”1 and “ in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came to see the sepulchre,”2 when they found Jesus was not there. It was, therefore, on the day after the seventh day, or, in other words, on the first day of the week, that his resurrection occurred. “ You say,” observes the emi­ nent mathematician, Dr. Wallis, in his controversy with Mr. Thomas Bampfield, “ the Greek word p signifies one, and eh p a Iv is rendered (not the first, but) one, about an hundred times in our translation of the New Testament; and p a cro.fifio.Tiov (which we translate the first day of the week) you render by one of the Sabbaths. Now, ’tis very true that p a in Greek doth sig­ nify one (and it may be so translated, for ought I know, as often as you say). But if you were so good a critic as to correct the translation, you might have known that p'a vafifiaTuv cannot sig­ nify one of the Sabbaths, for then it should have been tv aafifid- Twv, because vafifiaTa. is the neuter gender. Would you think una Seibbatorum to be good Latin for one of the Sabbaths 1 And you do not much mend it when you say, one of the week, meaning one day of the week ; for if by one, you mean some one, it should then be tis rjyepa, not p a t]p.epa., And Matt, xxviii. 1, it dawned or drew near eh ttjv jit ay to the one, not to some one day inde­ finitely, but to that certain day which was known by the name of l Luke xxiii. 56. 2 xxvui 5 3 2 THE SABBATH DEFENDED. THEORIES TRIED. 5 3 3 the child, his name was called Jesus,” the meaning is, not that the child was circumcised on the ninth day, but on the eighth, the day appointed in the law of Moses. It is repeatedly stated that Christ was to rise from the dead after the third day.1 But Christ is expressly declared to have risen on the third day.2 Jero­ boam and Israel were desired by Rehoboam to come to him after three days.3 Their coming on the third day (ver. 12), proved this to be the day intended. The Romans used the expression, “post paucos dies,’' after a few days, meaning a few days after. A third- day ague was, in Latin phrase, a quartan, one occurring every ot;ber day was a tertian. The French call a fortnight, quinze jours, and a week, hurt jours, or eight days. And it is common with many amongst ourselves- to say, “ This day eight days,” eight days, in fact, if they include the whole of the first and last day of the series, but only seven, “ This day se’n-night,” when they count from a certain hour of the first to the corresponding hour of the last.4 Dr. Paley and others adduce the following passages as evi­ dence that 2500 years had passed away ere a Sabbatic appoint­ ment took place : “ 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 shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover, also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” 5 “ Thou earnest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments : and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.”6 To insist that such lan­ guage establishes the origination of the Sabbath at the time to which it refers, requires us no less to believe,, that all the other statutes mentioned in connexion with that institution were then also enacted. According to this doctrine, sacrifices, the Deca­ logue, and circumcision, must have then in the first instance been 1 Matt, xxvil 63 ; Mark viii. 31. 2 Luke xxvil 7; 1 Cor. xv. 4. 3 2 Chron. x. 5. 4 Compare Esther iv. 16; v. 1. 5 Ezek. xx. 10,12. 6 Neh. ix. 13,11 p!a o-afifSaTtov, and so here [Acts xx. 7] iv rfj g'ta in the one, etc.. But since you are now content to allow, that by p a iiera^u a’ • • • • , a r,oo XXXV. 10.....................353 „ 5, . . . . 542 x. 5, . . . . 533 ,= , , 0,9 ,, 8,. .222, 285, 322, xxxiii. 12-19...................521 liv ’ o’ ' ' ' ’ 430 52S ivi. 1-7’ 346 » 9> • • f f ’ NEHEMIAH. „ 2, . . . . 549 „ 9-11, . . 285,319 6 . . . . 549 „ 11, . . 277, 528 ix. 13, 14, . . . . 533 ” 2 7’ ' ' 441 „ 12, . . 471, 542 xiil 18, . . . . 341 ” 7’ I ! I I 548 xxiii. „ . . . . 527 lyffi. 13’,. .461, 536, 549, xxxi. 14, 15, . . . . 342 ESTHER 55? ,, 15.................. 535 13, 14...266, 337, 347, „ 17, . . . . 276 iv. 16.................. 533 441, 552 xl. .....................30 v. 1....................... 633 14 549 550 L 10, . . . . 280 jiV 20’ ! . . . 282 JOB. „ 20-22, . . . . 257 LEVITICUS. . 6, . . 281, 282 & ll\ $ ! .* ! ! M xix. 30.................. 202 ii. 1, . . 281,282 23,.. 257,298,300, xxiii. 3, . . . . 536 „ 13.................. 280 ' 301 347 546, iv. 3.................. 282 554 vn \rm ?n q xxx. 28.................. 282 NUMBERS. xxxv. 1....................276 xv. 32-36, . . . . 343 JEREMIAH, Iiviii- 9> ...................PSALMS. vii. 22, 23................... 288 » 15..................... 446 .. xviL 24* 25' . . . . 552 n\5...................................J S - 24-26> ■ • • • 34t DEUTERONOMY. ; ; ; ; 553 iv. 2, . . . . 30 xxv. 14.................. 543 LAMENTATIONS. v. 22, 31.................. 287 xxvii. 4....................351 -95 vi. 4, 9, . . 534, 535 xxxiii. 12................. 553 i. 7, . • xii, 32, . . . . 30 xcii. ,,..3 8 4 , 388,408 ii. 6, . . 525, 5-6 xvi. 2.................. 523 cxix. 18................. 544 v. & . . 3. EZEKIEL. Chap. Ver. Page GALATIANS, x. 16...........315 Chap. Ver. Page xi. 34, 35, . . . . 544 Chap. Ver. Page xiv. 4, . . . . 113 xiii. 16, . . . . 342 iii. 10, . . . . 294 xx. 10,12, . . . . 533 xvi. 31......541 iv. g.xx, . . 304, 315 „ 13-24, . . . . 343 xx. 26, . . . . 532 xxiii. 38, 39, . . 557, 558 xxi.18,20 21, . . . 371 EPHESIANS. xxvi. 4................... 536 „ /u, . . . . d/i xliii. 27,.. 302, 547, 554 xxiii. 56, . . . . 531 iv. 10, . . . . 384 xlvt 4 5 327 xxiv. 7, . . . . 533 „ 28, . . 219, 220 „ 36,38,39, . . . 308 vi. 1-3,.. 296, 542, 543 „ i, . . . . 585 DANIEL. ii., vi. . . . . 5 JOHN. PHILIPPIANS. vi!: .................iv- 3. . - 303,304 qo ocq VI1. 17, . . • . 543 ’ ’ ' ' „ 22, etc., . , . 422 COLOSSIANS. ,, 22.......... 534 HOSEA. ix. 16, l . . . 608 iL 16> 17> • 10> 303> 304> vi. 6, . . . . 288 XX. 19-26, . . 309, 310 ... ^ _ 538- iv. 16...................325 AMOS. ACTS. viiL 4,5................... 557 i. 2, 63 L THESSALONIANS. » 5, . . 441, 526 v. 38,39’, .’ i 267, 273 iv. 1, 2, . . . . 315 ix. 20, . . . . 306 v. 27, . . . . 325 MICAH. x. 27.................... 311 i 5, . . . . 233 ^ 14- $ ; ; ; ; ^ n . t im o t h y . ” 42|..’ 303] 532, n. i. 5, . . . . 329 MALACHI. xv. 10.................. 288 iii. 15....................329 L I}- • • 553, 554 ” 2oi ! .' ! '. 325 HEBREWS. ” 13, 14,’ 441 v”,. 24, i®’ 29> • • • 315 ly 3 4 9 10 . . 529 iv. 4................... 30 1 5 , 3 .................. on6 „ 9, . . 349, 477 xx.' 6, IS, '. '. 810, 311 ... 9. I®. • • 308. 529 MATTHEW. „ 7,.. 310, 392, 531 vm- • • • -541 V. 17-19, . . . . 295 XX1' 4,25’ ; ; ; • x. 25’, ! ’. '. '. 311 „ 18, . . . . 546 vviv os’ ’ one „ 25, 26, . . 325, 326 vii. 16, . . . . 543 • " , . . . . 202 » 2> 31- _ . . 344 xi. 28-30, . . . . 610 i - etc-..................ROMANS. JAMES. ,, 5, . . . . ooO „ 8, . . 482, 488 iL 14, 15........... 293 | 5:7' • • 5ii< 5« xix. 16-19, . . . . 296 iii. 1, 2, . . 288, 293 u- • • • • 29t xxii. 87-40, . . . . 296 „ 31, . . . . 296 „ 10, 11, . . . . 297 xxiii. 23, . . . . 288 v. 13, . . . '. 534 * xxiv. 15, . . . . 371 vii. 6.................. 294 II. PETER. „ 20,..303,371,372, X2, . . 288, 296 ::: xo 1Q3 532, n. ” 14, . . . . 288 iv, . . . . 193 xxvii. 63, . . . . 533 22, . . 288, 295 T tattN xxviii. 1, . . . . 531 xiii. 9, . . . . 296 ' xiv. ....................138 iv. 6, . . . . 315 > MARK. >* 5, 6, . . . . 305 ii. 27, . . 629, 530 REVELATION. i X - 3f> • • • • 329 I. CORINTHIANS. i- . . . . 4! vn. 10,11, . . . . 295 „ 10, . 63, 64, 313, viii. 31, . . . . 533 ix 10, . 529 327,431 xiii- 14, . . . . 371 ! x 14, . -. 420 iv. 8,10,11, . . .350 xvi. 19, . . 308, 531 xi. 17, IS. . . . . 311 v. 8-10, . . 350, 351 xiv. 23, 26, . . . . 311 „ 9-14, . . . . 354 LUKE » 37, . . . . 315 vii. 10, . . . . 352 xv. 4.................. 533 „ 14, 15...................353 U- 21, . . 532, 533 xvi. „ . . . . 41 xiiL 3, . . . . 492 iv. 18-41....................321 „ 1, 8, . . 312,351 xxi. 23, . . . . 358 IN D EX OF TEXTS.