THE SABBATH. THE SABBATH ^^-ffrrr^^. VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF * JAN 4 1911 REASON, REVELATION, AND HISTORY WITH SKETCHES OF ITS LITEEATURE. BY TIFK^ REV. JAMES GILFILLAN, STIRLING. We are to account the sanctification of one day in seven a duty which God's immutable law doth exact forever." — Hooker. EDINBURGH : ANDREW ELLIOT and JOHN MACLAREN. LONDON : JAMES NISBET & CO. DUBLIN : W. CURRY & CO. GLASGOW : M. OGLE k SON. STIRLING : J. HEWIT. 1861, " The first creature of God in the works of the days was the light of the sense, the last w.i the light of reason, and his Sabbath work ever since is the illumination o f his Spirit." LnRpBAt EDINBUBGH : T. CONSTABLE, PRINTRR TO TOE QTEEX AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. PREFACE. The author of the followmg 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, he will not affirm ; but sure he is, that both ministers and private individuals, with whom, from his circumstances, he has been brought into intercourse, have been, for the most part, upright, holy, khid- 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, Mr. Barlas, Crieff ; Dr. Pringle and Mr. Black, Perth ; Mr. Jameson, Methven ; Dr. Mitchell, Anderston, afterwards of Glasgow ; Dr. Terrier, Paisley ; Dr. Jamieson, Edin- burgh ; Mr. Cidbertson, Leith ; Mr. Beath, Pitcairn Green. He can- not name others who occupied a less public station. But he sees them attending to the claims of their fellow-creatures equally as to their own affairs — visiting the poor and the 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 the sere- nity 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." VI PREFACE. His education among such persons, with the circumstance that his father had -written a small work on the subject, gave him an early interest in the Sabbath. The publication, which is the result of these influences, has for years employed those moments which he could spare from the duties of a laborious iDrofessiou. His own collection of boolis that treated of the institution, though ultimately of some extent, not being sufficient for his purpose, he has had to draw upon various public libraries. To the Librarians he is under great obligation for their readmess to accommodate him with access to the treasures under their care. He must tender special thanks to Professors Pillans, More, and Fleming, Messrs. Offor and W. H. Black, London, and Haig, Dublin, for securing him this privilege ; and to the Rev. A. L, Simpson and Rev. A. B. Grosart, Messrs. Small, Laing, Halkett, and Christie (Innerpaflfray), for their manifold acts of attention and kindness. Having made these remarks, he 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, May 31, 1861. CONTENTS. SKETCHES OF LITERATURE AND CONTROVERSIES. CHAPTEK I. Prior to the Reformation, 1 ; Jews and Pagans, 2 ; Christians, Jews, and Pagans, 7. CHAPTER II. From the Reformation to the Present Time, 23 ; Controversy about Holidays, 23 ; Sabbath Literature, etc., in England, 41 ; More, Tyndale, 44 ; Godly and pious Institution of a Christian, 45 ; the Primer and Cranmer's Catechism, 46 ; Hooper, 47 ; the Com- mandments added to the Liturgy, 47 ; the Articles and Second Book of Homilies, 48 ; John Northbrooke, 64 ; Humphrey Robartes, 65 ; Gervase Babington, 66 ; John Stock- wood, 68; Smith, 70; Rhemes New Testament and Dr. Fulke, 70; Perkins, 72; Greenham, 73 ; Bownd, 74 ; Dod, Cleaver, and W. Burton, 78 ; Widley, 79 ; Loe and Thomas Rogers, 83 ; Sprint, 89 ; the Declaration for Sports, p. 91. CHAPTER III. Subject continued, 97; Traske, 97; The NeOwrlands—Rohiason, 98 ; Teellinck, Thysius, Burs, Voet, Ames, 99 ; Walaeus, Gomar, Rivet, Eaton. C. Schotanus, 108 ; Hoornbeek, Essen, Heydan, Cocceius, 116; F. Burmann, Essen, Crawford, 120; Brown, Koelman, 123 ; England, 126 ; Broad, Prideaux, 128 ; Brerewood, N. and R. Bj field, H. Burton. 130; Theophilus Brabourne, 133; Second Declaration of Sports, 1?,6 ; Dr. Heylyn, Bishop White, 140 ; Pocklington, Sanderson, Primerose, Dow, Ironside, 142 ; Abbot, L'Estrange, Twisse, and other writers of 1641, 146 ; Fisher, Collier, CoUinges, Usher. 148; remaining Writers and Controversies, 149; United States, 159; Scotland, 166, Conclusion, 178. ADAPTATIONS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER I. Relation of the law of Sacred Rest to the Physical Nature and wellbeiug of man, 181 ; Re- quisites to Man's physical wellbeing. Testimony of Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Southwood 1 CONTENTS. Smith, and others, 181 ; the Necessity of a Seventh day's rest, 186 ; Evidence of Medi- cal men, 187 ; Of Masters and Employers of "Workmen, 188 ; Of Manual and Mental Labourers, 189 ; Case of Lower Animals, 191. CHAPTER II. Adaptation of the Sabbath to the Constitution and Improvement of the Human Mind, 192; The Sabbatic Institution, .^?-5^ affords a Season, 192, and second, provides Subjects and Occupations for Mental Stimulus and Discipline, 193 ; Influence of Divine Truth and Religious Engagements, 194 ; Of the Pulpit, 194 ; Of Sabbath Evening Instruction, 195 ; Of the Pastor, 196 ; Of the study of Scripture, 196 ; Of Prayer, 197 ; Of Family Wor- ship, 197 ; Of various means at other times, to the use of which the institution incites, 197 ; Evidence of Facts, 198. CHAPTER III. Moral and Religious Influence of the Sabbath, 202 ; The Weekly Holy Day favourable to good Morals, both as a periodical pause of Labour, 202, and as a Day of Instruction and Worship, 203 ; A perfect rule of Ethics, enforced by the mightiest Motives, and i"en- dered effectual by Almighty Power, 204 ; Sir James Mackintosh on " Preaching Faith," 205 ; Dr. Adam Smith on " the Atonement," 206 ; and on the Superior Morality of " little religious sects," in consequence of the watchful care exercised over them, 207 ; Christian Principles and Measures approved and copied by Mrs. Fry, 207, By the Em- peror Julian and others, 208 ; The Necessity of a Weekly Holy Day to the prosperity and even preservation of Religion, proclaimed by the almost universal voice of mankind, 208 ; and appears from the Nature of Religion itself, 209; which must have some time for its Consideration and Practice, 209 ; Must have times free to be applied to it, 209 ; Must have fixed times for Worship, Public and Domestic, 210 ; Personal, 211 ; Must have regularly, frequently recurring times, in fact, one day in seven, 212 ; Three Con- clusions follow, and are established by Facts, ,first. Where the Sabbath is duly hon- oured and observed, Religion and Morality prosper, 212 ; srcond, As the Institution is perverted. Religion and Morals decline, 21.3 ; third, Where there is no Sabbath, there is no Religion or Virtue at all, 214 ; Remark of Dean Prideaux, 215. CHAPTER IV. Economy of a Weekly Holy Day, 217 ; The Sabbath, a clear gain to the Working Classes, 217 ; Amount of the Products of Labour increased by a weekly day of Sacred Rest, Testimonies of Dr. Farre, Hey of Leeds, Macaulay, Wilberforce, Bagnall, 218 ; The Sabbath favourably affects tlie quality of Labour. Evidence of Foreman and Stokers of a Steamer, and of Mr. Swan, Engineer, 219 ; These are the Results of the Sanitary Power of the Institution, which yields Material Benefit, no less, by its tendency to im- l)rove Intdlcciual, Moral, and Religious character, 220 ; Facts showing that Indivi- duals and Societies prosper or not, according as they enjoy or want a Sabbath, 221. CHAPTER V. Influence of the Sabbath on the Respectability and Happiness of Individuals, 225 ; First, the Sabbath elevates to True Respectability and Honour, 225 ; By cherishing true Free- CONTENTS. IX dom, 225 ; By promoting Efficiency in the Business of Life, 227 ; By securing Re- spect and Confidence, 227 ; By fostering the Disposition and Power of Beneficence, 228; The Sabbath a peaceful, righteous, and sure means of raising a Man to his proper place in Society, 229 ; Second, The Sabbath is eminently conducive to Personal Happiness. It iuust be so, 230 ; It is so, 231 ; Asceticism of Pagan origin, 231 ; The Early Christians, the Reformers, the Puritans, were the happiest of Men, 231 ; So Wilberforce, Venn, and others, 233 ; Colonel Gardiner, Gibbon, Lord Byron, Mrs. Hemans, 235. CHAPTER VT. Domestic Benefits of the Sabbath, 236 ; No true and happy home without the Sabbath, 237 ; Domestic Life neither Virtuous nor Comfortable where the Day of rest is con- nected with a False or an Impure Religion, 238 ; The Family deteriorates under a Ne- glected or Profaned Christian Sabbath, 241 ; The Family flourishes wherever the Christian Sabbath is rightly observed, as in Great Britain and America, 242 ; When Sabbath Observance is begun or resumed, the sure consequence is improvement in Domestic Character and Condition, 244; Contiguous Families are strikingly distin- guished in respect of Morals and Comfort, according to their treatment of the Sabbath, 245 ; It is invariably found, that where the Sabbatic Institution is in force or in abey- ance, the Domestic Institution flourishes or is disorganized, 247. CHAPTER VII. Advantages of the Sabbath to Nations, 250 ; The Institution is productive of National Good by its Economical Influence, 250 ; By exciting a Spirit of Improvement and use- ful Enterprise, 252 ; By contributing to secure good Government, and consequent tranquillity and safety in a Country, 256 ; By its favourable Bearings on Health, 2(32 ; By its Moral Power, 265 ; By its promotion of General Knowledge, 267 ; and as an essential means of Maintaining and Furthering a Pure Religion, 268. DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER I. Proofs from its Adaptations and Advantages that the Sabbath is of Divine origin, 277 ; The Sabbath must have been the Suggestion of Infinite Benevolence, 277 ; Its Adaptations proclaim it to have been the Device of Divine Wisdom, 278 ; Its Sanctity and Justice, 279 ; Its reception by Human Beings, 279 ; The awe it inspires in the hearts of its Enemies, 280 ; and its preservation in such a world as ours, 281, prove, respectively, that its Author is Divinely Holy, Just, Powerful, and unfailingly True and Faithful, 281. X CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. Divine Institution of the Sabbath at the Creation, and its Observance by the Patriarchs, 283. First Proposition.— The Sabbath was Instituted by God at the Creation, 285. Second Proposition. — Circumstances occur in the subsequent History, which, but for the antecedent Institution and continued Obligation of a Sacred Seventh Daj', could not have been mentioned, or even have existed, 291 ; 1. The Narrative itself considered in its manner and place, 292. 2. The respect shown to the Septenary Number, 292. The Observance of the Weekly Division of Time, 293. 4. The Prevalence of Public AVorship, with its Accessories, 294. 5. Instances of Remarkable Piety, 296. 6. The Long Life and Prosperity of the Patriarchs, 297. 7. Incidents in the History of Israel in Egypt, 297. CHAPTER III. The Sabbath Promukated from Sinai as one of the Commandments of the Moral Law, Thlikd Proposition. — The Sabbath, as Instituted at the Creation, had a place assigned to it in the Moral Law given ft-om Sinai, 299 ; Laws connected with Local and Tem- porary Circumstances may be General and Permanent, 299; The Divine Transactions with a particular People may have much that applies to all Nations, 300 ; That the Ten Commandments epitomize the Duty of Mankind appears from — 1. The Special Honour shown in Scripture to these Commandments, 302. 2. Their own Nature, 305. 3. Their declared and actual Obligation under all Economies, 308. CHAPTER IV. The Sabbath under a Change of Day, a Christian Ordinance and Law, 314. Fourth Proposition. — A variety of circumstances justified the confident expectation of a Christian Sabbath, 314 ; Men still needed a Sabbath, 314 ; Worship still required, 315 ; A weekly Holy Day still adapted to man, and might be expected to be even more than formerly a blessing, 315 ; The Primaeval Statute of Rest unrepealed, and the Law of Sinai in force, 315 ; The Hope of a Sabbath warranted by Divine Pro- mises, 316. Fifth Proposition. — There were circumstances that tended to prepare the minds of men for some change in the Institution, 317 ; It had already undergone changes in its re- lations, 317 ; A dispensation, in some respects so new, might be presumed to have a Sabbath adapted to its character, 317 ; Nor were intimations wanting of what the change would be, 818. Si.x^th Proposition.— The facts in the New Testament have fulfilled the predictions of a continued, yet as to its day altered. Sabbath, in the Old, 319 ; The obligation of observ- ing the Seventh day of the week as the Sabbath dedaraUvehj, and, in fact, set aside, 319 ; The Fir.-tday of the week divinely appointed to be the Christian Sabbath, 323 : No new Institution required to be enacted, 323 ; But the transference of the day from the end to the beginning of the week declared by the Resurrection of our Lord, 324 ; By Hi."! CONTENTS. XI meeting with His Disciples, 325 ; By His second Tisit to them, 325 ; By the observance of the First day ia Public Worship at Troas, 327 ; By the order to the Churches of Corinth and Galatia, 329 ; By Rct. i. 10, 829. Seventh Proposition. — The change of day could not have been adopted without Divine authority, 330 ; From the existing prepossessions in favour of the Seventh day, 330 ; From the regard which Jehovah has to His worship, 331 ; From the abundant provi- sion made for all the observances of religion, 331 ; From the apostolic censure of the observance of days, 332 ; From the projihetic intimations of a Christian Sabbath, 332 ; From the events and blessings which have attended the hallowing of the First day of the week. 333. / CHAPTER V. The Duties of the Sabbath, 334 ; Sacred Rest, 334; Sacred Service, 339; Public Worship, 341. J/ CHAPTER YI. Subject continued, 344 ; Family worship, 344 ; Religious instruction of families, 345 : Reli- V gious conversation, 346 ; Personal devotion and study, 347 ; Works of benevolence and mercy, 348 ; The Fourth Commandment implies the duty of redeeming our ordinary time, 349 ; Of preparing for the Sabbath, 350 ; Of promoting its observance by others, 350 ; It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can perform the duties of the Sabbath, 351 ; The law as sacred under Christianity as ever, and enforced by yet more impressive sanctions, 351. CHAPTER YII. Divine estimate of the importance of the Sabbath, 354 ; The Sabbath has a precedency of rank, 354 ; No institution has been more frequently promulgated, 355 ; Terms of legis- lation unusually copious and explicit, 355 ; Related to peculiarly important facts, 356 ; Manner of proclamation, 357 ; Means of maintaining its authority and enforcing its observance, 358 ; Antiquity and duration, 364. THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. SECTION I. Traces of Septenary Institutions among Pagan nations, 369; Appropriation of periodical days to religion and rest, 369 ; Distribution of time into weeks, 374 ; Respect shown to the Septenary Number, 375 ; Application of the evidence in proof of a primal Sabbath, 376. SECTION II. The Sabbath or Lord's day in Centuries i.-iii., 378 ; The history throws light on the mean- ing of terms for the weekly rest, 378 ; Testimonies for Lord's day of Clement of Rome, CONTENTS. 382 ; Of Pliay, 382 ; Of Justin Martyr, 383 ; Of Melito, Theophilus, Dionysius, Ire- naeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, 384 ; Of TertuUian, 385 ; Minuciua Felix, Origen, and Cyprian, 386 ; Sabbatic doctrines of the period, 386. SECTION III. The Sabbath in Centuries iv.-xv., 392 ; Meaning of terms, 392 ; Doctrines held, 393 ; Prac- tical teachings of the period, 397. SECTION IV. Centuries iv.-xv. continued, 401; Ecclesiastical measures, 401; Legislation, 404; Ascend- ency of the Lord's day, 408 ; Observance, 412. SECTION V. The Sabbath at the Reformation, 417 ; To estimate the Sabbatic views of the Reformers, these views must be fairly stated, 417 ; There must be due consideration of the limited opportunities and means possessed by them of examining and discussing the subject, 418 ; The state of the institution in the Church which they sought to reform must be taken into account, 419; The Reformers regarded the Lord's day as a reasonable, useful, and indispensable provision, 421; They carefully enforced its observance, 423; They and their flocks conscientiously observed the day, 425 ; They believed the Sabbath to have been appointed at the Creation for all time, 426 ; They sometimes employed expressions respecting it which have been interpreted as implying hostility to the institution, 436 ; Their words have in some instances been misunderstood, 437 ; Their strong expressions not to be interpreted literally, or viewed apart from their other sayings and practice, 440 ; Their errors do not subject them to be considered as unfriendly to the institution, 443 ; The Sabbath in the Church of Rome, 445 ; Doctrine of Council of Trent, 445. SECTION VI. The Sabbath after the Reformation, 447; In Church of Rome, 447; Among Piotestants, 448 ; Doctrine of Westminster Assembly, 449. THE SABBATH VINDICATED. CHAPTEK I. Theories tried by the principles of the Divine Government, 453 ; Enumeration of theories, 4.53; The principles by which they are to be tested are unity of Divine plan. 455; Divine plan progressive in its development, 456 ; Regard to order, 457 ; Benevolence, 458; Government by law, 460; Government by exclusively Divine legislation, 462; Government of truth and righteousness, 466. CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER II. Theories tried by Scripture in its obvious meaning and general scope, 470 ; All theories but one either reject the plain and understood meaning of terms, as the proleptic and geological, 471, 472 ; Or contravene the principle that all writings must be explained according to their connexion, 473; The latter error exemplified in Paley's argument from the silence of Scripture, 473 ; and in his explanation of various parts of Scripture, 479. CHAPTER III. Theories tried by Divine predictions, 487 ; The fulfilment of prophecy proves the truth of the Divine word as to the continuance of the Sabbath, 487 ; Decides on questions re- specting the proportion of time, and the particular day of the Christian Sabbath, 488 ; Respecting the engagements of the day, 489 ; Respecting the manner of worship, 490 ; The predictions of good to individuals, 490 ; and to communities, 493 ; When fulfilled, point to the service which is divinely approved, 493 ; The destined universality of the true Sabbath is in course of being accomplished only by those who maintain the doc- trine of a holy, perpetual, weekly day of rest, 494 ; Illustrations from the want of success attending other theories, and from the introduction of the institution into heathen countries by Missionaries holding the theories specified, 495. CHAPTER IV. Proposed substitutes for the Sabbath, 501 ; The scheme which proposes a holiday, a day either in whole or in part, devoted to amusement, 502 ; Experience and physiology con- demn the expedient, 504 ; Proposal to open the Crystal Palace and places for instruc- tion in Science and Art, 505 ; The plan impracticable, 507 ; Would be inefficient, 508 ; The plea for such expedients, which is, that strict Sabbath-keeping is demoralizing, de- monstrated by facts to be utterly groundless and absurd, 509. CHAPTER Y. Desecration of the Sabbath at home and abroad, 516 ; Mistaken notions respecting Jewish. as distinguished from Christian duty, in regard to Sabbath observance, 516 ; What the / desecration of the Sabbath is, 517 ; Extent of the evil in this country, 518 ; Prevalence of the evil in foreign lands, 523 : Remedial measures employed, 529. CHAPTER VI. / ^ f Causes of Sabbath desecration, 532 ; The root of the evil, 532 ; Apathy and evil example of professed friends of the institution, 633 ; Parental neglect, 535 : The conduct of the higher and wealthier classes, 536 ; Masters and employers, 538 ; Foreign influences, 540 ; Propagation of wrong and corrupting views through the press, 540. conte>;ts. CHAPTER VII. Remedies of Sabbath desecration, 541 ; The preaching of the Gospel, 544; Home Missions, 545 ; Private remonstrance, 645 ; The press, 546 ; Parental influence, 549 ; Good ex- ample of Christians, 549 ; Persons of high standing, 652; Prayer, 553. CHAPTEE VIII. Concluding appeal, 557 ; The Sabbatic institution has been venerated and observed by the greatest and best of men, 557 ; It involves the interests of all classes, 563; It has the most important relations to a future state, 565. APPENDIX. Testimonies on behalf of the Sabbath, 567. CORRECTIONS. In p. 74 the title of Bownd's second edition is used. The title of the first edition is, " The Doctrine of the Sabbath Plainely Layde Forth and Soundly Proved," etc. In p. 88 a mistake of Brewer in his edition of Fuller's Church History is copied. It was "Bond," not "Bownd," whom Archbishi-.p Whitgift patronized. In p. 109, read Uitenbogart. In p. 123, read Nethenus. In p. 150, for low songs, read love songs. In p. 153, /or Barlow, read Marlow. In p. 159, first note, the dates should be 1647, 1648. In p. 168, first note, in " Wed. Soc. Sel. Biog.," huert vol. 1. In p. 171, note, delete 's after Wodrow. In p. 174 the author was misinformed in reference to "Patrick M'Farlane," who was not a minister of the Relief Church. In p. 177, line 4, /or as read and. SKETCHES OF SABBATIC LITERATURE AND CONTROVERSIES. CHAPTER I. SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES AND LITEEATURE PEIOE TO THE EEFOEMATIOK 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 Jndea 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 subject of earnest controversy and of multii^lied writings. Although it has not received the attention, still less the full eluci- dation, which its character, antic^uity, 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, with 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, of their own volumes, by presenting a resume at least of previous theories and arguments ? If the following sketches should prove that it is easier to point A 2 SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. out than to supply a desideratum, it will be to the writer a satis- ifmg 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. JEWS AND PAGANS. Wliile kindred observances are discovered in pagan countries from the remotest times, it appears from a few scattered notices in history, that the true Sabbath, as observed by the patriarchs and the Jews, was the object of bitter and even violent hostility to those heathen men Avho were brought into intercourse with its friends. In Cain and Pharaoh, we see tj^Des — 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 Sabbaths," but compelled her jieople to labour without any rest ;^ and in the cmel edict of Antiochus Epiphanes, who proclaimed 1 Lam. i. 7; v. 5. JEWS AND PAGANS. 3 the keeping of tlieir Sabbath, and every observance of their law by the Jews, to be a capital offence.^ 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 sept* ^ festa Sjro.^ Nee pluvias vites : nee te peregrina morentur Sabbata : nee damnis Allia nota suis.^ 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.^^ 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 ! AVhy ? but each seventh day their bigot sires Eescind from all that social life requires.^ Badhani's Translation (1831), p. 191. 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.^ Persius sneers at the voiceless prayers, and the Sabbaths of the cu'cumcised : — Thou mutterest prayers — nor dost refuse The fasts and Sabbaths of the curtailed Jews J DrydertS Translation 1 Jahn's Jeivish Antiq., p. 108. 2 j^^l. Am. lib. i. v. 416, 3 Retried. Am. v. 220. * Be Cicit. Dei, lib. vi. c. 11. 5 Qusesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos. Sed pater in causfl, ciii sepdma quasque fiat lux Ignava, et partem vitse non attigit ullam. Juv. Scd. 14, V. 105. 6 " Septimo quoque die otium placuisse," &c. — Hist., lib. v. sec. 5. ^ Labra uiOTes tacitus, recutitaque Sabbata palles. — Pers. Sat. 5, t. 184. 4 SABBATIC CONTEOVERSIES AND LITERATURE. Whence, it may be asked, this antipathy to Jewish sacred days ? These v^Titers were familiar with seasons of rest and worship as obseiTed by their own countrymen in a manner not unlike the practice of the Jews. Plato, in a remarkable passage cited else- where in this volume, extols festivals as the gift of the gods for the relief of toil-doomed man.i Cicero, though he stigmatizes the religion of the Jews as abhorrent from the ancestral ordinances of Rome, commends festal days.^ And Seneca, while he sees no- thing 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 attempering of human labour.^ 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,^ and that many of the Jews had spread themselves over the Empire, and liad been admitted to the privileges of citizenship. To this latter fact the words of Horace apply : — " ' This is the Jews' grar.d feast ; and, I suspect, You'd hardly like to spurn that holy sect.' ' Nay, for such scrupulous whims I feel not any.' ' Well, but I do ; and, like the vulgar many, Am rather tender in such points as these.' "^ Howe's Translation. 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 ; ' i>t' Li'g. lib ii. - De Leg. lib. ii. sec. 19. Orat. pro. Flac. 3 x)c 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. 5 Hodie tricesima Sabbata, vin' tu Curtis Judajis oppedere ? Nulla mihi, inquam, Relligio est. At ml, sum paullo infirmior, unus Multorum.— ,Sa/. 9 of B. 1. JEWS AND PAGANS. O "UTio, like tlieir sires, tlieir skin to priests resign, And bate like human flesh the flesh of swine. The laws of Eome those blinded bigots shght, In superstitious dread of Jewish rite ; To Moses and his mystic volume true, They set no traveller right, except a Jew.^ Badhani's Translation. lu defending tlieir religion and its institutions, the Jews had recourse to various means according to circumstances. Sometimes, as under Ahasuerus, and in the Maccabsean 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 Jews- 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 whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices, because, thougli I Quidam sortiti metuentem Sabbata patrem, Nil praeter nubes, et coeli numen adorant : Xec distare putant humana came suillam, Qua pater abstinuit : mox et praeputia ponunt : Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges, Judaicum ediscunt, et fervant ac metuunt jus, Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses : Xon monstrare xias, eadem nisi sacra coleuti. — Juv. Sat. 14, v. 87. The translator, remarking on the ignorance betraj'ed by Juvenal in these lines, adds :^- " Had Providence permitted to him the use of th- 'olume of their (the Jews ; great law- giver, how much would he have been astonished av, benevolence and mercy which it inculcates I and how little would he have felt disposed to Doast 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 misre- presentations of the Jewish religion. The latter has in one in-tance done it justice, and let his beautiful words be a reply to the poet's fancy of " cloud-worship," though, as the trans- lator 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 contemplation, condemning as impious idolaters all who with perishable materials wrought into the human form, attempt to give a representa- tion of the Deity. The God of the Jew.s is the great governing mind that directs and guides the whole frame of nature, eternal, infinite, and neither capable of change, nor subject to decay." — Hist. Book v. sec. 5. ■- Joseph. Antiq. xii. vi. 2; Wars, i. vii. .5. 6 SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. tliey 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, among other things, that they should not be obliged to go before any judge on the Sabbath- day, or on the day of preparation for it, after the ninth hour.^ 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 even in some instances disavowing, as they well might, 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. ^ Re-echoing Scripture facts relative to the Sabbath, they describe the care, amounting to austerity, with which in the days of the Maccabees that holy 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-Judaeus.^ The other was the well-known Josephus, whose works, prized alike by the intelligent many, and the learned few, have shed much light, including a few rays on our subject, over 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 1 Joseph. Aniiq. xvi. ii. 3 ; xvi. vi. 1., &c. 2 Dr. P. Smith's First Lines of Christ. Theol, p. 472. 3 Philo represents himself as advanced in life in ad 40. His language on certain sub- jects is 80 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. * 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 eflFulgence on the uorld, 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. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. t friends of the system were far from being happy ilkistrations of its moral tendency, and the system itself had fallen nnder 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.) CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. The Sabbatic controversy now passes into two — one between Jews and Christians ; the other between Christians and the adher- ents of Paganism. In each of these new conflicts as in the old, one of the parties is subjected for a time to persecution 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 off'ered to the less aggressive and energetic system which it has succeeded. Christianity is assailed with a proportionate severity by the heathen. The Jews also turn persecutors, and, like Herod and Pilate, they and the Pagans, who before were at enmity between themselves, are made friends together. From the days of the apostles downwards 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 rea- sons 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 faithful observance of their day of rest, one of the testing questions put to the martyrs being, Dominicum ser- vasti ? — Have you kept the Lord's Day 1 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 contem- plate the adoption of a similar provision for reviving and propa- gating heathen error. 8 SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. 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 eminent men who are so well known under the name of the Fathers, and occupies not the least valuable portion of their works. Among the Fathers and early Christian writers, no fewer than thirty-one out of forty-seven have adverted, with less or more brevity, to the Sabbatic institution. Both as combatants against Pagan and Jewish errors, and as witnesses, whose testimony, justly held worthy of attention and respect, is to be adduced in another part of this volume, they claim in this place a brief notice : — First Century. — Within the period comprised in New Testa- ment history, only two instances occur in which uninspired writers refer to a stated time for religious worship. In A.D. 68-70, Clemens Romanus wrote his celebrated Epistle from the Church of Rome, of which he was bishop or presbyter,^ to that of Corinth, in which he refers to the seasons of worship as by Christ instituted and commanded to be observed.^ He is sup- loosed by Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, to have been one of those fellow-labourers of whom the apostle Paul testified that their names were in the Book of Life (Phil. iv. 3). Barnabas, another fellow-labourer of Paul, whose Catholic Epistle (a. I). 71 or 72) has for its object to show that the Mosaic ' Clement employs these terms as expressive of the same office — (c. 42, 44.) - Of this epistle, ascribed to Clement by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, &c., it has been said that it is the most important record of the apostolic age remaining to us. Some writers have assigned it to a.d. 90 or 97, but its references to the Temple as still standing, and to the recent deaths of the Apostles Peler and Paul, prove it to have belonged to the e'-vrlier period already indicated. See Hefde in Proleg. to Patnim Apost. Opera, p. xxix. CHEISTIANS, JEWS, AKD PAGANS. 9 dispensation was divinely superseded by the Christian, expressly mentions the universal celebration by the Church of the eighth day as a holy day, in place of the former seventh day. This epistle, written, as Lardner has unanswerably shown, a year or two after the destruction of Jeinisalem by the Romans, is quoted as the work of Barnabas by Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and was, like the preceding, read in some of the early churches along with the Scriptures. ^ Second Century. — In the early part of this century, in 107, or more probably, as some suppose, in 116, Ignatius, a disciple of the apostle John, and afterwards bishop of Antioch, suffered martyrdom, being, by order of the Emperor Trajan, conveyed to Rome, and exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. On his way to Rome he wrote letters to various churches, and one to Polycarp. In the letter to the Church of Magnesia, there occurs a passage which has been frequently adduced in proof that the Lord's Day was recognised and observed in his time.^ In his first Apology, addressed, in 138 or 139, to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, Justin, called Martyr to distinguish him from the historian, records the manner in which the Christians, in the 1 In opposition to evidence so decisive, and to the opinions of Vossius, Usher, Mill, Wake, and Lardner, some writers have questioned or denied its genuineness on the ground chiefly that it contains fanciful interpretations of Scripture. The reason, valid enough against ad- mitting its inspiration, or vyisdom in certain speculations, is insuflScient to disprove its genuineness, except on a principle which would set aside no small part of human author- ship. Eusebius makes a just distinction when, considering the epistle to be the production of Barnabas, he holds it to be spurious or apocryphal as regards any claim to a jjlace in the Canon. Gieseler regards the above-mentioned ground of objection to it as "untenable," remarking that Barnabas was not a man of spiritual consequence, as is clear even from the Acts of the Apostles, ch. xiii. 13, 43. 2 Of these seven letters there are two recensions. Each has bad its supporters, but it ap- pears to be now generally agreed that the shorter one is, on the whole, a genuine copy of the Epistles of Ignatius. To this result no one contributed more than Usher, who edited, in 1642, an ancient Latin version of them from two MSS. discovered in this country, and in 1644, a volume containing both the Greek and Latin, distinguishing the interpolations in the former from the genuine text. In 1646, Isaac Vossius published the correct Greek text from MSS. in the library of the Medicis at Florence. Three epistles in Syriac, to Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the Romans, recently discovered, are by some considered as the only genuine writings of Ignatius, but nothing has been advanced for this theory adequate to the overthrow of the evidence, arising from the testimony of Eusebius (H. E. iii. 36), and Jerome (De Viris illust. c. xvi.), to the existence of the seven epistles and from the cita- tion of passages made by Eusebius, Athanasius, and Theodoret. 10 SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. early part of the second century, observed their weekly holy day ; and, in his Dialogue 2vith Tri/pho, a Jew, vindicates them for not keeping the Jewish Sabbath. He was born in Palestine, about the year 100, — studied philosophy with great care, em- braced Christianity in 133, and suffered martyrdom about 165. We are indebted to Eusebius for notices of three writers who flourished in 170. Melito, bishop of Sardis, was the author of several works, no longer extant, with the exception of a few frag- ments preserved by the historian, one of which is peculiarly valu- able, as containing a list of the canonical books of the Old Testa- ment. Among his works, which had come to the hands of Eusebius, was one 'ttb^i xu^iazrig — on the Lord's Day, this title alone now survi\'ing of what appears to have been the first distinct treatise on the institution. The loss of the work produces a feel- ing of the more regret that the author was pronounced by Tertul- lian an elegant writer, and is thus eulogized by Poly crates, " AYhy should I not speak of Melito, whose actions were regulated by the motions of the Holy Ghost, (and) who lies interred in Sardis, where he expects the resurrection and the judgment V ^ The other two writers referred to are Dionysius of Corinth, the author of various epistles, of which only a sentence mentioning the ob- servance of the Lord's Day in that city remains ; and Theophilus, bishop, for twelve or thirteen years, of Antioch, who, in his only work now existing — Three BooTcs addressed to Autolychus, a learned heathen — has uttered a few remarks on the Sabbatic in- stitution. To A.D. 178, belong two writers who have borne important testimony on the subject, — the learned Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, and author of Five Books against Heresies, his only work that has come down to us ; and the no less learned Clement, presbyter of AlexamUia, who has left various writings, of which the chief is his Stromateis, a collection of memorabilia of the wise and good, with whom he had enjoyed intercourse. Whatever were latterly the doctrinal errors of TertuUian (150- 220), the man whom all admit to have possessed uncommon learn- ing, whom Cyprian owned as his master, and Eusebius extols as one of the ablest of the Latin writers, and as held in great estimation 1 Dupin's Illst. of Eccks. Writers, i. 54, 55. Euseb. Eccks. Hist., B. iv. ch. 25 (Gr. 26). CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 11 in all the churches, must be well entitled to be heard, to say the least, as a witness in a matter of fact. And few of the Fathers, certainly none before his time, have said so much respecting the weekly holy day.^ He was born in Carthage, and was a presby- ter, discharging that office, it is believed, in the Church at Rome. Third Century. — Tlie Christian writers in this century, who have touched on the subject, are Minucius Fehx, an African, an eloquent advocate in Rome, and author of " Octavius," an ani- mated defence of Christianity ; the celebrated Origen (a.d. 185- 253), presbyter of Alexandria ; his disciple, Dionysius the Great, made bishop of Alexandria in a.d. 247 or 248; Cyprian, chosen to the same office at Carthage in a.d. 248, distinguished like the pre- ceding by his learning, as well as sufferings, which were crowned, in his case, with martyrdom ; and Victorine, bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, a commentator on several books of Scripture. Wliile Origen has, in his Commentaries and Reply to Celsus, a few passages on the institution, a single sentence of each of the others entitles him to be niunbered among the witnesses for the Lord's Day. At the close of the century, we discover in the strenuous advocate of non-restoration to the Church of such as had relapsed into idolatry, Novatian, the second Christian writer who has devoted a separate work to the consideration of the weekly holy day. All that we can learn respecting his tractate on the Sabbath, is con- tained in these words of Dupin : — " It is very probable that the Treatise about Jewish meats, attributed to Tertullian, belongs to Novatian, as well by reason of the conformity of the style, as because the author observes in the beginning, that he wrote two letters, wherein he demonstrated, that the Jews knew not what is the tnie circumcision, or what is the true Sabbath, all which agrees with Novatian, who, according to St. Jerome, wrote two treatises upon the same subject." ^ Fourth Century. — This period, so signalized by the number of its able writers, by the union of Church and State, and by the 1 In Apologclicus adversus Gcntes, of which Ad Natianes, Libri Ihto, is a rerised and enlarged edition, Liher adversus Judceos, Liber de Corona, and Libri quinque adversus Marcionem. 2 Eccks. Writers, i. 145, 146. 12 SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES AND LITERATURE. Arian controversy, has furnislied not the least copious of the tes- timonies borne by the Christian Fathers to the authority, ob- servance, and value of the Sabbatic institution. It is mentioned in the canons of Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, written in 306, shortly before his martjTdom, and in the Divin- arum Institutionum of his contemporary, Lactantius, tutor to Crispus, the son of Constantine, and from his pure and elegant Latinity, called " the Christian Cicero." In numerous instances has Eusebius (a.d. 261-340), bishop of Cassarea, the earliest ecclesiastical historian, of whom it was said that he knew every- thing that had been \^Titten before him, described and commended the Lord's Day.^ Eusebius is followed by Athanasius (a.d. 296-373), bishop of Alexandria, the indomitable confessor and sufferer in the cause of the Saviour's Supreme Deity, till victory crowned his efforts, and of whom Nazianzen said that his life was a good definition of a true minister and preacher of the gospel. He is, so far as we are aware, the third wTiter who has entered into a formal description of the Sabbatic institution.^ Important evidence on the same subject, though in few words, is furnished by Cyril (a.d. 315- 386), patriarch of Jerusalem, and author of Catecheses or Ser- inons ; by Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, who honourably opposed, at the expense of banishment, the deposition of Athanasius, and has left works on the Trinity, the Arian controversy, as well as on several books of Scripture ; Epiphanius, chosen bishop of Salamis about a.d. 366, and who wrote The Panarion, a treatise on heresies and their antidotes ; and Ephrem the SjTian, and deacon of Edessa, who was born in the reign of Constantine, and died about the year 378.^ With similar brevity is the Lord's Day noticed by the celebrated triumvirate, Basil the Great, successor in a.d. 369 of Eusebius, a strenuous opponent of Aiian doctrine, the zealous advocate of union between the Eastern and 1 Particularly in his Ecclesiastical History, Life of Constantine, and Expositions of Scrip- ture. - In his treatise, De Sahbato et Circumdsione. 3 He gained a high reputation, says Hagenbach, by his exegetical books, and rendered signal service to Syria by the introduction of Grecian science, and dogmatic terminology. " Ephrem vel Ephraein, Syrus. Magister Mundi dictus. Opera ejus Basiiius mire commen- dat. Ilieronymus publico praelecta dicit." — Hoffmann's Dictionary, ii. 165. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 13 Western Churches, the friend of Chrj^sostom, and a writer of whom it has been said that his Homilies are so replete with learning and eloquence, as to vie with the best productions of ancient Greece ; Gregory, bishop of iN'yssa, Basil's brother, the profoundness of whose scientific knowledge, says Hase, with his peculiarities, assign to him the first place among the followers of Origen ; and the friend of Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, afterwards bishop of Con- stantinople, surnamed " The Theologian," and author of two in- vectives against Julian, as well as of many other works. They are succeeded by Jerome (a.d. 321-420), the serious deductions from whose character on the score of his favouring the adoration of the Virgin, and other errors, must not induce us to forget his eminent services to learning and religion, by his making " the West acquainted with Grecian and Hebrew emdition," his care of the canon of Scripture, his opposition to the errors of Pelagius and Origen, and, let us add, the contribution of a small quota of savings on behalf of the Christian Sabbath ; by Ambrose (a.d. 320-394), bishop of Milan, who was "the chief pillar of the Nicene orthodoxy in the West, and exerted considerable practical influence upon Augustme;" by Rufinus (fl. a.d. 390), the friend, and sub- sequently the antagonist of Jerome, one of the ablest men, accord- ing to Dupin, of his time, to whom the Latin Church was so much indebted for his translations of the most considerable of the Greek authors ; by Chrysostom (a.d. 344-407), a native of Antioch, and bishop of Constantinople, who frequently lent his powers of surpassing eloquence to the enforcement of the Di\'ine claims of the weekly holy day to hallowed respect and observance ; and by Augustine (a.d. 354-430), bishop of Hippo, in Africa, who, if we except his great contemporary just named, has written more on the Sabbath than any Father that has not made it the subject of a special treatise, and who, the greatest of his class, has accorded the testimony of his profound knowledge and rich experience to the authority, sanctity, and importance of the Sabbatic institution. Fifth Centuey. — To this century belong the three well-known historians — Socrates Scholasticus of Constantinople, Hermias Sozomenus, and Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus, whose works are continuations of Eusebius, bringing down the record of ecclesias- 14 SABBATIC CONTEOVERSIES AND LITERATURE. tical affairs for upwards of another century, and forming, along with the other writings of the last-mentioned and learned indivi- dual, sources of information on our subject. To these have to be added Petnis Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna (433), author of many homilies ; and Leo, bishop of Rome (440), who in his youth was acquainted with Augustine, was a man of learning, and left sermons, with other works. Sixth Century. — The institution is noticed in this century by Fulgentius Ferrandus, who, trained under Fulgentius (467-533), bishop of Ruspae in the north of Africa, " the Augustine of his age," became a deacon in the Church of Carthage, published several works, including an abridgment of the Canons, and died in 550. The Lord's Day had expounders of its character, and advocates of its observance in Anastasius Sinaita, bishop of Antioch, who flourished in 561, and Gregory of Tours (544), who was made bishop there in 573, and was the author of the earliest history of France, of a commentary on the Psalms, and of other worksi Columba does not rank among the writers of the Christian Church, but he was an advocate and an example of respect for the Sabbath.^ The list for this century is completed with Gregory the Great (550-604), Bishop of Rome, whose learning, zeal in reforming- abuses, in opposing ecclesiastical assumptions, and propagating Christianity, with his aversion to all persecution, his simple frugal life, and princely liberality to the poor, so strangely contrasted with his entire prohibition of the reading of the classics, his credulousness as to miracles, his lofty notions of Papal authority, and his flattery of Phocas. 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, uncontradicted by the others, has each of the doctrines been held, which in our days have, 1 A native of Ireland, he Tisited Scotland, and was the means of converting the northern Picts to Christianity. Fixing his residence in lona, he founded a seminary, from which hia disciples went forth with the Bible in their hands to enlighten the dark regions around. His followers, known by the name of the Culdees, had no fellowship with the Church of Rome, and held forth the word of life till near the time of the Reformation, not knowing the decrees of synods respecting festivals, and having learnt only what was contained in the writ- ings of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles. CHEISTL'^NS, JEWS, AND PAGA2s'S. 15 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 recjuired 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.' The Sabbatic institution in particular is treated of by Novatian and Athanasius, and referred to in various 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 Jemsh arguments on, among other points, the continued observance of the seventh day as a holy day, are presented. Tiypho charges Justin and other Christians as aff'ecting superior excellence, and yet not at all diff'ering from the Gentiles, inasmuch as they observed 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 obsei-vances after Christ has come. 2 Irenseus and TertuUian reason in the same way. " Abraham," says the former, " believed God without circumcision and the Sabbath."^ "Let them show me," says the latter, " that Adam sabbatized, or that Abel in presenting his holy oftering to God pleased Him by sab- batic observance, or that Enoch, who was translated, was an obsei-ver of the Sabbath, or that Noah, the builder of the Ark on accoimt of the gTeat deluge, kept the Sabbath, or that Abraham amidst Sabbath-keeping off'ered his son Isaac, or that Melchisedeq in his priesthood received the law of the Sabbath.""* 1 As Jusrin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, TertuUian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Eusebius, BiSil, Ohrysostom, and Augustine. 2 C. 12. 3 ^t^j., iiceres lib. iv. c. 30. 4 Adv. Judceos, sec. 4. 16 SABBATIC CONTEOVERSIES AND LITERATURE. 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 " oblations" in the argument of Justin Martyr, shows that this was the sense in which he used the term. That Tertullian employed it in the same acceptation 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;" ^ and, "All anxiety is to be abstained from, and business postponed on the Lord's Day." ^ 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 " Simday" was observed by the Christians in their times, but positively affirmed the Divine authority of the day. Irenseus, too, mentions the Sabbath along with circiuncision, thus making it manifest that he refers to Mosaic ordinances, and has plainly stated his conviction that the Deca- . logue is of perpetual obligation, as well as that the Lord's Day is supreme among the days of the week, being the only season on which it was right to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.^ " The Fathers," observes Bishop Patrick, " in saying that there was no Sabbath among the patriarchs, meant Jewish Sabbaths." How would Justin Martyr and Tertullian have indignantly spurned the interpretation put on their words by a recent writer, when, to accomplish the ungodly and unphilanthropic purpose of overthrow- ing a Divine mstitution, 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 in- ference that, " except during the time of divine service, the Chris- tians of that period lawfully might, and actually did, follow their worldly pursuits on the Sunday."^ The works of Athanasius, particularly his treatise on the Sab- bath, which was expressly designed to prove the abrogation of the seventh-day rest, furnish further examples of the manner in which 1 Apol. c. 16. 2 2>fc' Oral. c. 17. 3 Adv. Ilcercs, iv. 31. Euseb. Il'isst. Eccles. lib. v. c. 24. * Examin. of the Six Texts, by a Layman, p. 274. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 17 the Christians conducted the controversy on this subject against the Jews. To instance in one : — " We then honour the Lord's Day on account of the resuiTection ; but the Jews to this hour cling to the Sabbath, even after Isaiah has said, ' Your Sabbaths my soul hateth.' There is nothing in my view so imholy as the Sabbath which God has hated. I refer not to the cycles of days, but to that which is accounted Judaism." ^ 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), nor to be yielded to on the other (xxi. 25). Yet a party, the Ebi- onites, who professed to be Cliristians, 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,2 as they made this obseiwance 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 Sabbath has revolved in its septenaiy 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 1 Ilom. De Semente. 2 jj!gt_ jjb. iij. c. 27- B 18 SABBATIC CONTKOVERSIES AND LITERATURE. 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. Against such Sabbatarianism, the early Fathers, as Barnabas, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr, testified. They were followed in this course by Clement and Dionysius of Alexandria, Tertullian, Vic- torine, Novatian, Athanasius, and others. Notwithstanding these efforts, respect for Saturday gained ground. This feeling was especially cherished in the Eastern Churches, in which, from defer- ence to the Jews, who were numerous in the East, they dis- tinguished the day by two of the supposed prerogatives of the Lord's Day, the standing posture in prayer, and the exclusion of fasts. Tertullian informs us that a very few persons in his time began to introduce the former practice in the West. The his- torians, Socrates and Sozomen, attest the general observance of the Lord's Supper on both the seventh and first days of the week, the former excepting the Churches of Alexandria and Rome — a very large exception — who followed an old tradition. ^ And Bing- ham states, that towards the close of the fourth century, the ob- servance of Saturday, like Sunday, prevailed generally throughout the East, and the gTeater part of the Christian world.^ But the former day was in no period of the Church's history placed on a level with the latter. In earlier times, a religious regard to the seventh day 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 standing on the Sabbath ; nor, secondly, are there any imperial laws forbid- ding lawsuits and pleadings on this day ; nor, thirdly, any laws prohibiting the public shows and games, as on the Lord's Day ; nor, fourthly, any laws obliging men to abstain wholly from bodily labour." ^ 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 » Socr. Hist. lib. v. c. 22, and lib. v. c. 8. Soz. Hist. lib. vii. c. 19. 2 Antiq. Book xx. c 3, sec. 1. ^ Antiq. Book xs. c. 3, sec. i. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 19 Divine authority, and peculiar sacredness. The facts bear out the statement of Ai'chbishop Usher, that " where Saturday was kept holy day, it was not as a Sabbath, but as a preparation- day for the Christian Sabbath." 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.^ At an earlier period, the heathen assailed the Christian ritual as contemptibly mean, and the Christian Sabbath as a season devoted to concealed impurity and crime. The charges of immorality, as practised on the Lord's Day by its friends, were triumphantly dis- proved. Justin Martyr and TertuUian present unvarnished ac- counts 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. Tlie groundless allegations of Celsus, that the religion of Jesus was without a proper worshi]), because it had no altars, images, or temples, were met and disposed of by overpowering arguments in one of the ablest works of Origen, but for whose immortal pages the allegations themselves must have been long ago forgotten. It remains that we mention the eminent men who in succession bore testimony to the authority of the Lord's Day, from the seventh century down to the time of the Reformation. Although no im- portant discussion between Christians and unbelievers on the sub- ject appears to have arisen in that period, 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, ' Thus wrote Rutilius Numitianus, — Radix stultitiae cui frigida Sabbata cordi : Sed cor frigidius religione sua est. Septima quseque dies turpi damnata veterno Tanquam lassati mollis imago Dei. 20 SABBATIC CONTEOVERSIES AND LITEEATUKE. jiud their testimony was of no little consequence to its preserva- tion, as well as to the permanent evidence on its behalf. Tlie following are the principal writers who express their views respecting the Christian Sabbath in the course of these centuries — Isidore Hispalensis (595-636), archbishop of Hispalis (Seville), author of commentaries, a treatise on ecclesiastical offices, and other works -^ Theodore, a native of Tarsus, and archbishop of Canterbury (668-690), who diffused in England a knowledge of the Greek language and literature; the venerable Bede (673-734), who has referred to our subject in. his Hexameron and Commen- taries ;'^ Theodulph, bishop of Orleans (d. 821), and the corre- spondent of Alcuin, who, amongst his pious labours, founded popular schools, and exerted himself in promoting the observance of the Lord's Day in his diocese ; Leo,^ the philosopher (865-911), who did honour to the Lord's Day, though more as a ruler than as an author; Theophylact, archbishop of Acridus in Bulgaria (d. 1071), a Constantinopolitan, author of letters and various commentaries ; Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (fl. 1093), author of homilies and letters ; Petrus Alphonsus, a convert from Judaism, who wrote against the Jews, as also on science and philosophy ; Rupertus Tuitiensis or Rupert of Deutz (fl. 1111), distinguished for his learning and piety, and author of commentaries and theological tracts; Alexander Alesius or De Hales (fl. 1240), "the irrefrag- able doctor," and " the first theologian who made a general use of the Aristotelian philosophy;" his pupil, Thomas Aquinas (1224- 1274), "the angelic doctor," who was born in the kingdom of Naples, and taught at Paris, Rome, Bologna, and Pisa ; John de Wycliffe (1324-1384), professor of theology in the University of 1 " He was," says Dr. Pye Smitb, " the author of the first digested system of theology," methodizing its truths for the Latin, as Damascene afterwards did for the Greek Church. Hase represents him as an eminent example of that ecclesiastical learning which was not only mistress of all secular knowledge, but by collecting the works of ancient authors, secured the inheritance of antiquity. — Hist. p. 175. 2 He was honoured as the representative of all the knowledge possessed in his time, and was a faithful teacher as well as learner to the last moment of his life. (Hase, p. 179.) — tiemper aut discere, aut docere, aut scribere, dulce habui. '■i Leo succeeded his father, Basilius, as Emperor of Constantinople. His merits as a prince, if we except his noble edict on behalf of the Lord's Day, were less than his merits as a writer, in which character he appeared to advantage as a compiler of laws, a tactician, a moralist, and a poet. CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND PAGANS. 21 Oxford, and the distinguished precursor of the reformers, who, in his dialogues entitled Trialogus, has fully expressed his views both on saints' festivals, and on the one divinely sanctioned and perma- nent holy day; and Nicholas de Clemangis (fl. 1416), who was thus far at least a friend and maintainer of the Sabbath, that he ener- getically denounced " the multitude of holidays which had of late times been brought into the Church." It was not only, however, by the published writings of learned men that the Lord's Day was maintained and vindicated in the period now under our survey. Many councils and synods directed their attention to the institution, and issued injunctions for its observance. It was the subject of frequent and uni- formly favourable legislation by the civil powers. The digni- taries of the Church, particularly in England, exerted their com- manding 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 super- stitious, and other impure ingredients, were the tributes of 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, dimng fifteen centuries. But a peculiar 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 stamp it will ever owe, its most congenial testimony, and best defence. 22 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. CHAPTER II. SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES AND LITERATURE FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION TO THE PRESENT TIME. The harmony of Christiaiis on points directly affecting the authority and sacredness of the Lord's Day continued unbroken for upwards of fifteen centuries. The Reformation, which stirred so many questions, led to no immediate contest on this. But 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. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. From an early time piety and zeal, by adding to the institu- 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 as " 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 multitude for each day of the year,^ and the 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. Ration. Of. 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 Eusebiue, and reduces the number to 500! CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 23 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 ; 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." ^ 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 1 Hairs Harmony of Ccmfessions (1842), 391, 397. 24' SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. of the sj'stem, 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 BasiP and Chrysostom^ 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, ^rius, 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.3 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.^ About the same time Yigilantius, 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. -^ 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."^ 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 I Orat. on the Forty Martyrs. 2 jjcm. 70, to the people of Antioch. 3 Gen. Hist., iii. 461, 462. 4 Hist. EccL, lib. v. c. 21, 22. 5 Bruce, Annus Secularh, p. 199. Neander's Gen. Hist., iii. 456. 6 Gretscrus, in Altare Damascctium, p. 490. CONTPvOVEESY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 25 example, the feast of light, and of palms, and the feast of Pascli, of Christ, and of the saints. They work on feast-days : they disregard the fasts of the Church, dedications, and the benedic- tions."^ 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.^ 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."^ 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).^ 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 debaucheries and enormities in which the generality of people in- dulge themselves on those days, as out of regard to labouring men who have need of all the time they breathe in to get their liveli- hood."^ 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 1 Blair's Hist, of the Wald., i. 408. 2 Leger, Hist. Gen. des Eglis. Vavdois, i. 123. 3 Bruce's An. Sec. p. 20. ^ Heylyn's Hist, of the Sab., part 2, p. 168. 5 Bruce's An. Sec, p. 162. 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. 26 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. vineyard, he is cited and severely punished, but he who is guilty of these worse things shall want both punishment and an accuser." ^ 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. 2 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.^ "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 Scrip- ture, and only followed natural reason, driving out the holy days of the Pagans, as one nail is driven out with another. These holydays have been defiled with so gross superstition, that I marvel if there be any Christian who does not shake at their very names." * 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 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, how- ever, 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.^ " 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 observance* more thorough and permanent than in Scotland. The First Book 1 Tractat. de Nov. Celebrit non instit. 2 JTeylyn's Hist, of the Sab , part 2, p. 168. 3 Consultum esse ut omnia festa aboleantur, solo Dominico Die retento. — Lib. ad Nobil. German. Utinam apud Christianos nullum esset festum, nisi dies Lominlcus. — De Bon. Oper. * Bucer on Matt. x. 11. * For tbese facts, see Calv. Fp^st. ad Haller ct ad Min. l!ur., .-ind Bonnet's Letters of Calvin, i. 40, 46, notes. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 27 of Discipline declares, 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, because 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 Assembly, the part that sanctioned holidays, of which the Church of Scotland rejected all but the Sabbath-day, was in both cases excepted from the favourable verdict. In the General Assembly, held August 6, 1575, it was enacted, "That all days which heretofore have been kept holy, besides the Sab- bath-days, such as Yule day, saints' days, and such others, may be abolished, and a civil penalty (be appointed) against the keep- ers thereof by ceremonies, banquetting, fasting, and such other vanities."^ Hence the boast of King James vi., so much in con- trast with his subsequent proceedings towards his native land — when, in addressing the Assembly 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.^ What have they for them 1 They have no institution. As for our neighbour Kirk in Eng- land, their service is an evil-said mass in English : they want nothing of the mass but the liftings."^ In other instances, the success of the Reformers in this matter did not come up to their 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 produced by her having discarded twelve feast-days of Rome. It appears from the Acts of a Synod held at Dort in 1574, that the Belgic Churches had agreed to be content with the observance of the Sabbath."^ 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 efl'ect — that it were to be wdshed that ' Book of the Univ. Kirk of Scotland (1839), p 151. 2 Easter and Christmas. » Calderwood'8 H!sl. p. 286. ■"- Ktrkdyk Hantboekjc (1738), Art. 5.3. 28 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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, &c., 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, and shall do the same in cities where more festivals are kept by the authority of the magistrates ; and that the chiu-ches shall endeavour, as far as possible, to have the stated obseiTance of every feast, except Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day and Whitsunday, aboHshed with all due speed. ^ 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 Chiu-ch, 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.^ 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 Loudon, reduced the many anniversaries of church dedications in his diocese to one annual celebration, " in order," as he said, " to diminish the number of holidays which encouraged the people to indulge in riotous ex- cesses."* But the most efiectual assault on the evil was that of Henry viii., 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 tliat 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 1 Kerkrlyk Haulbochjc (1738), Art. 75, Vod. Disput. Sekxt., iii. 1309. 2 Vod, ibid. 2 Order of Synod at Vitre, Bruce's An. &.'C. p. 206. * Wilk. Concil. iii. 701. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 29 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 superstitious and childish obseivances" were also placed under ban. And thus was fixed the precise number of holidays — except that the feast of St. Mary Magdaleue was excluded in 1552 — 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 Chm'ch 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. 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, 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, iu 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 disruption of the Church. 30 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. In this contest, as in otliers already noticed, there was on the one side power, the power of the oj^pressor. 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,^ 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.'^ It was expected that on the accession of James to the throne of England, a prince who had avowed his attachment to " 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- 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 worse, only hang them, that's all ;" and in his first Parliament avowed, that while he was content to meet " our Mother-Church," the Church of Rome, half-way, the Puri- tans were insuff'erable in any well-regulated state. Accordingly, four hundred of his petitioners were in the course of a few years 1 Hist. y. 337. 2 Brook's Puritans, i. 60. CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 31 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 atro- cious 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, com- monly 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 obtained." The restored monarchy and eccle- siastical 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 conform to the Prayer-book, rites and cere- monies of the Church, and causing the deprivation of nearly two thousand five hundred ministers, 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 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,! and to the salutaiy effects of measures, which, though 1 The Earls of Bedford, Leicester, and Warwick, Lord Kich, Sir Francis Knollys, Sir Wil- liam Cecil, Beza, the General Assembly, the Parliament at Tarious times. Mr. Attorney Morrice, Archbishops Grindal and Abbot (repeatedly). Bishops Rudd and Williams, &c. Grindal for his favour to the Puritans was under censure for some years, and Williams for saying that " they were the King's best subjects, and he was sure they would carry all at last," was fined £11,000, and committed to the Tower, his library and goods being sold to pay the fine, to which was added a fine of £8000 on the discovery among his papers of two letters addressed to him, and containing certain dark expressions. 32 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSY. they set at nought the claims of justice and humanity, expa- triated some thirty thousand citizens, and drained the country of so much of its wealth and moral worth, were, under Providence, the occasion of establishing our rights at the Revolution, of train- ing 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 Marshalsea, — when, as at the Hampton Court Con- ference, and on many other occasions, the Puritans were subjected to browbeating and abuse, — and when, as afterwards, a physician, for denying the Divine right of bishops above presbyters, a bar- rister 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, 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,^ Dr. Burgess, Dr. Ames, Gillespy, Jeanes,^ Calder- wood. Dr. Owen, Baxter, &c."^ 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 1 Robert Parker, a rector of the Church, author of Be PoUtica Ecclesiasiica, an able treatise. ^ Henry Jeanes, also a rector, " a noted metaphysician," according to Wood, who wroto ngainst Dr. Hammond. •i Works (1836), p. 2.3. * co:ntroveesy about holidays. 33 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 was ; and from the words upon another occa- sion 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."^ 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 AVhitgift's against Cartwright, and his injunctions set forth in her Majesty's name."^ Within a few years there followed a discussion between Hooker and Travers, when both were lecturers at the Temple. Travers w^as 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 Usher 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 and 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 1 Clark's Lives, pp. 18, 19. 2 Strype's Whitgift, p. 285. C 34 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVEESIES. of England. But it lias 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. Ames, or Amesius, has given importance and fame to a contest between him and Bishop Morton, with Dr. Bur- gess, on w^hom 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 GocVs Worshijy, 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." ^ The imposition of Prelacy, and the Five Articles of Perth, ou the people of Scotland, extended the controversy to that country, where men of no 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 Conformity (1622) was the joint production of Calderwood and James Melville. Mr. John Murray, minister of Leith, and afterwards of Dunfermline, was the author of A Dialogue^ d-c. (1620), 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 contendings 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 J Li/c and Ti»n'.< of Richard Baxter, p. 19. CONTEOVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 35 ill ' a great cloud of witnesses with which we are compassed about.' "^ It may be added, that eveu 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. 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-testimony which I profess, on behalf of the Reformation-principles of the Church of Scotland, against the manifold errors and corruptions 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." ^ A work of Gillespie, imder the title. The English Popish Ceremonies obtmided upon the Church of Scotland (1637), though the production of a mere youth, was deemed worthy of being " discharged by a 1 MisceU. Writings (1841), p. 152. 2 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. 36 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. proclamation." Baillie extols it as a marvellous composition, and " far above such an age."^ 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-exmnination of the Five Articles enacted at Perth, &c. (1636), with other books and tracts, published in 1623 the Altare Da- ma^cenum, " 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." 2 It would be unnecessary to dwell on tiie writings of the decided 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 on 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, Wlieatly, who has done justice to the arguments for such seasons,'^ with Professor Bmce of Whitbum, Avho applied his remarkable powers and acquirements to a work in which he endeavours to prove that holidays are contraiy to Scripture, and fraught with injuiy to the best interests of society.* 1 Stevenson's History, ii. p. 217. Baillie's Letters, i. pp. 67, 68. 2 M'Crie's Miscell. Writings (1841), words of the editor, p. 78. In an advertisement to the reader, prefixed to the Leyden edition (1708) of the Altare Damasanum, 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 Hi.story, Spotsvvood, 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 diflFerent thing from the primitive, that it had corrupted the churches and the ministry, and destroyed all Chris- tian discipline."— ZZ/i; of Baxter, pp. 22, 33. 3 In Rational Illustration, ^c, ch. v. Of the Stmdays and Holidays. * Annus Seeuktris, or the British Jubilee, ^c. (1788.) CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 37 We may add, that it fitly devolved on the iutimate 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 semce on the day appointed for the funeral of the Princess Charlotte. The late Dr. Andrew Thomson positively refused to comply ^^dth 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'Crie,^ under the name of Scoto- B?'itan7ius, 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 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 otlier, 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 gi'eater 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- 1 Free Thoughts on the late Religious Celebration of the Funeral of her Royal Highness the Prineess Charlotte of Wales ,- and on the Discussion to which it has given rise in Edin- burgh.—See Dr. M'Crie's Miscell. Writings, pp. 356, 357. 38 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. fancy of Christianity, some certain days were yearly set apart to commemorate the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, the coming of the Holy Ghost, &c., 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, &c., and appointed to be observed on those days on which the Church of England now observes them."^ 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 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 Triith 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 ; xl. ; Deut. iv. 2 ; xii. 32 ; 1 Kings xii. 33 ; Prov. xxx. 6 ; Mai. iv. 4); that eveiy 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 ;" 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- 1 Rational Illtistration, ^c. Of the Sundays and Holydays, ch. v. Introd. CONTROVEESY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 39 tiee of tlie cliurches 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 Cluist.^ " 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 discoveiy of this truth." ^ 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 disi)ute is no trifle. What must raise this probability as to the case before us into certainty, are the two considerations ; first, tliat such questions had to be settled as, AVliether Christ be the sole lawgiver in his Church ? and Whether the Scriptures be a suffi- cient rule of worship ? 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- teimining, 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 1 Works (1826), xxi. 336, 337. - Ibid. x. 184, 185. 40 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES. early reformers by purging away her remaining PojDery! 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 seciUarize a system of polity and worship which has been the glory and blessing of their country ! On this sub- ject we would employ the weighty words of a distinguished Scot- tish writer : " This thorough reform" — the " abolishing at the Reformation 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, imconstrained 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 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. ' 0 fortiinatos nimiuni sua si bona norint.' .... If ever the time come when the attachment of tlie 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 COXTKOVEESY ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 41 things in our political situation and local circumstances have a power- ful tendency to weaken and to crush. Those who view every ex- pression 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 confomiity. And this resistance cannot be opposed to the evil at too early a stage. ' Principiis obsta ; sero mediciua paratur, Cum mala per longas invahiere moras.' "* ENGLAND. Ko 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 fidly 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 liberty, drew to themselves the nourishment neces- sary to its \agour and luxuriance. It is a matter rather of regret than maiTel, that these great and good men, in exposing the pre- valent 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 reconcilable 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 shoidd 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- 1 Miscell. Writings, pp. 574, 5^5. 42 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. teinatic 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."^ 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 receptor and father in the Lord.^ That a contest in whicli 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.- The share of Cocceius was consider- able, but its worth was not a little lessened by his fanciful views (jf Scripture. Hoornbeek and Essen, on the other "hand, treated the Bible as a book of definite meanings, and as forming in its two gi-eat divisions of the Old and New Testaments a Di^dne re- velation to mankind. Of the works produced on the occasion that have come under our notice, the most comprehensive and complete appears to be the Disseiiation of Essen, which without prolixity exhausts the subject as then agitated ; and by its rational scriptural views of the Fourth Commandment, as well as of the Decalogue at large, reminds us of the best Sabbatic writers of our own country. Nor were Hoornbeek and Essen less distinguished by the spirit than by the ability which they showed in the discus- sion. They deported themselves entirely as became ministers of the gospel and professors of theology. Heydan was bitter ; his "sharpest" passages, indeed, were said to be those which he had plagiarized ; but this fault he made, and there was little else in the property that he coidd make, really his own. Cocceius is querulous, and, in his reply to Paschasius, who charged him with following and favouring the Socinians in his Sabbatic views, wrathful. Although he was the decided opponent of Sociniau, as he was of Arminian and Popish errors, yet the undue heat of the Indignatio, and the feeling of uneasiness betrayed by him in 1 Di.<>sert. vii. sect. 23, in Fraser. - The work so unceremoniously pillaged was the Disput. de Die Dominico of Louis Chapelle. See Brown's Causa Dei, 4 c, vol. ii. p. 896 ; Koelman's Dc llistoire, pp. 289-293. 120 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVERSIJ:S. other parts of the discussion, bespeak misgivings as to tlie good- ness of his arguments and cause. We wonder, indeed, that such a cause and its obvious fruits in the increasing profaneness of the people did not induce a person, Tvho, according to Mosheim, was possessed of " piety in an eminent degree," to pause, and thence- forth eschew the folly of conceiving that men can have religion on other days, who do not devote one day in seven to its exclusive study, and tliat there is any guarantee for a weekly holy day but in the fact and belief that it is an express ordination of Heaven.^ F. Burman:^ — Essen — Crawford. Four years had hardly elapsed when there arose a fourth con- troversy, attributable to Francis Burmann, Professor of Theology and Pastor at Utrecht. For a time after his appointment to these offices in 1662 and 1664 respectively, he acted warily in regard to the Sabbath question, particularly in the pulpit. It was not long, however, till he exj^ressed his views in an anonymous publication — Bericht van den Sabbath, and then proceeded openly to proclaim them, which he did in June 1665, when, in course of lecturing on the second part of the Catechism, he spent a great part of his hour in attempting to prove that in the matter of sanctifying the Lord's day, we are bound not by the force of the Fourth Commandment, but by a custom and ordinance of the Church. Many were astonished and offended at his doctrine. To others it was acceptable as it " promised them liberty." The pro- fessors and ministers of Utrecht were aggrieved at so flagrant a departure from the principles whicli they had so cordially held. Essen was not slack to encounter the challenger. They engaged in a series of public disputations. Thus far we have followed Koelman.2 From the publications issued on both sides, we find 1 The spirit of partisauship descended from Cocceius to his son, who, in the preface to the collected works of the former, imputes the blame of the controversy to Hoornbeek and Essen, proving it by arguments amounting to this — "My father and his colleague very inno- cently introduced the subject for discussion among the students, and, when found fault with by their opponents, who recklessly disregarded the peace of the Church in so doing, must reply to them, becfvuse " neither was truth to be abandoned, nor reputation to be thrown away." 2 De Ilistoire, p. 300. THE NETHERLANDS. 1 1> 1 that the war was carried to the press, and learn the following particulars respecting it. Biirmann published his Disquisitio. Essen answered in his AtaAvcrts. In the Vindicice Disquisitionis, which next appeared, Burmann apprehending, as he said, that the debate would rival the fabled river of the Jews which flowed with untiring rapidity on all days but the Sabbath, declared that he laid down his pen, not to take it up again 7iisi digniores vindice nodi occurrant, as he envied no one, neither coveted the fancied victory of having the last word. Essen issued the Vindici-s and Rdinions, 1622 ; 7V Pon- (I'ribut et Pretiis vet. ^'urmmtrum, 161 ■!, with other works ENGLAND. 131 ejtistle from Mr. Brerewood t(} Mr. Byfield, with a brief reply by the latter and a rejoinder by the former. The circumstances of this correspondence were singular. The Professor, deceived by a worthless nephew, who pretended that having been converted by Mr. Byfield to strict views of Sabbath-keeping, he could not con- scientiously remain in a situation where he was reqiured to per- form certain unnecessary works on the Lord's day, wrote to the minister of St. Peter's a formidable letter extending in print to fifty quarto pages, in which he poured out bitter reproaches, main- tamed extraordinary opinions, and insisted that the man who had wronged him should give him the satisfaction of a rencounter, not certainly with rapiers, but according to FuUer's expression, by " brandishing pens." Byfield, in his brief reply, repudiated the charges, disclaimed the obligation to "answere evers- stranger's vaine challenge," and ha\ing declared his Sabbatic creed, declined the controversy. It appears, however, that the re-iterated accu- sations, demands, and strange doctrines of the Professor in his Rejoinder, had compelled the aggxieved minister to forego his purpose of silence, and that, according to the belief of his brother, an answer w^as in the hands of the publisher, who suppressed it.^ When m these writings of ]\Ir. Brerewood we find him in- dulgmg " proud wrath," and stoutly asserting, that the moral part of the Sabbath hecame on Sinai one of the pei-petual words, not before ; that it is mcompatible with the goodness of God to give to a man a command which, through the wickedness of other men, he cannot keep without being punished for his obedience ; and that as the Fourth Commandment is given to the master, not to the servant, the performance of secidar 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 ministiy, with the excellent John Bruen as his fellow-worshipper, he occasionally sat ; and I R. ByfiekVs Doctrine of the Sahhalh Vindicaied,}}. 191. 132 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 use- ful preacher, a thorough Calvinist, a non-conformist to the cere- monies, 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 w^ere converted, and Puritanism gained ground."^ He was the author of Expository Sermons on the Epistle to the Colossians and other parts of Scrip- ture, 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." ^ An ample and able reply to Brerewood made its appearance in 1631, under the title of " The Doctrine of the Sabbath Vindicated, by Richard 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. Referring 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 wholy given to Atheisme and i3rofanenesse." 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 1 Brook's Puritans, vol. ii. p. 297. - Eccles. [1693], pp. 97, 101, 108. ENGLAND. 133 found ill the Homilies, and in the almost universal creed of Chris- tendom. 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 gi'eat was the goodness of God upon me,"^ 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 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 disaff'ection 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. Theophilus Brabouene. It was not in 1628, as Fuller states, but in 1632, that Bra- bourne " set forth a book, dedicated to his Majesty, entitled, A Defence of that most Ancient and Sacred Ordinance of God's, the Sahhath-dayr This was a larger work than his Discourse 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 com- pelled attention, and provoked immediate as well as lasting hosti- lities. In the Defence, after laying down the position, that the Fourth Commandment is simply and entirely moral, containing nothing legally ceremonial in whole or in part, and ought there- 1 A Narration of the Life of Mr. Henrij Burton, p. 7. 134 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. fore, ill 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 tliis truth ; so captivated is my conscience and enthralled to the law of my God."^ The " pride," however, which was 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 a deliberate, patient, and full hearing, together with a satisfactory answer to all his maine ol)jections."^ The result of this, and of a private conference, was a confession made in "a publike and lionourable 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 Chiu'ch, yea, and a most ancient holy day, and veiy honourable," with a humble submission unto his holy Mother, the Church of England, and the promise, " I wall 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." ^ It was a confirma- tion of the proverbial ardour of new converts, that the penitent had scarcely left the Commission, when he lianded 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."'' There was something suspicious in such a conversion. A partial WTiter says all that could be said in its justification, and it is little : " For some reason, it is not possible to ascertain distinctly what, though probably he was overawed by the character of tlie assembly, he signed a recantation, and went ' Defence, Dedication, p. 1. " Treatise of the Sahbath Day, Dedication, p. 24, 5 Ihid. p. 30.5, &c. < Ihid. p. 307, &c. ENGLAND. 135 bacik to the bosom of the Church. Xevertheless, he continued to assert, that if the Sabbatic institution be indeed moral and perpe- tually binding, the seventh day ought to be sacredly kept."^ 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, &c., on his Sabbath." 2 THE SECOND DECLAKATION OF SPORTS. We may here adopt the words of Fuller : " Pass we now from the pen to the j^ractical part of the Sabbatarian difference. Somer- setshire was the stage wdiereon the first and fiercest scene thereof was acted. Here w^akes (much different, I daresay, from the watching prescribed by our Saviour) were kept on the Lord's day, witJi 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 memorial-day of the saint to whom the churches w^ere dedicated, Ijecause the people had not leisure to observe them on the week- days. The object of church-ales was to raise money for repairing <.hurches, and for the poor by means of benevolences collected after divine service at pastimes in the cliurchyard, 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, " wdiereby 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.^ In 1631, while going the Western Spring Circuit, the Lord Chief-Justice (Sir Thomas Richardson) and Baron Denham, w^ere 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- ' D&xy's Hist, of the Sabbatar. Churches, p. 127. - Modest Plea, p. 74. 3 Bishop Pierce, in NeaVs Puritans (1837), vol. i. pp. 559, 560. l;36 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVEKSIES. tain iDersous 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 before 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 a 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, 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 diff'erences, 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. ^ " 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." ^ Laud was raised to the primacy, August 16, 1633. His letter to Bishop Pierce was 1 Fuller and Neal, under a.d. 1633. 2 Xeal (1837), vol. i. p. 560. ENGLAND. 137 dated October 4th of the same year. And a fortnight had not elapsed ere the Second Declaration of Sj)orts 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 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, bailiflfs, 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." ^ 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- 1 Wilk. Convil. vol. iv. pp. 483, 484. 138 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTllOVERSIES. pended, diiven from their livings, excommunicated, prosecuted in the Court of High Commission, or forced to leave the kingdom.^ 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 oinnes ! 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, ' Kemember 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 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 rea.d 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 Ai'ch- bisliop 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. ^ 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 1 Neal (18371, vol. i. pp. 561-564. -' Brook's Lives of the Pariians, vol. iii. pp. 174, 17). ENGLAND. 139 ill 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 rso well observed." ^ The wrongs and sufferings of hundreds of Puritan ministei's were 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, Eichard 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 i^lay 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.^ His account is conftrmed by the Strajford Letters, 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." ^ 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 ] " 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 the 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 1 Brook's Puritans, vol. iii. pp. 174, 175. 2 Orme's Life of Baxter, p. 14. ^ Vol. ii. p. 148. 140 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 again." ^ Dr. Heylyn — Bishop White. 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 bidding of their superiors ; hence there rose up together, or in rapid succession, a class of authors whose writings perverted the doctrine, and gave a new tone to the litera- ture 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 wiitten, printed, and pre- sented to the King in less than four months."^ 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 ccnu'se 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 their temple by the Komans, it was abrogated with other ceremonies ; and was, by the few Gentiles who took notice of it, 1 Pnictical Works (1838), vol. iii. p. 904. 2 Vernon's Life of Heylpn, p. 88. ENGLAND. 141 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 ATclibishop 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."^ Dr. White him- self, who published his Treatise of the Sahhath 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 Book of 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."^ His Treatise has been called the most learned produc tion of the time on its subject, yet, both in the work itself, ana 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 ^ Page 296. 2 Treatise, pp. 255, 256. 142 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. {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 tliem ; 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 tliev are aware of."i^ POCKLINCTON SANDERSON PrIMEROSE DoW IroNSIDE. Drs. Heylyn and Francis White were followed by Dr. Pock- lington, whose Sundaij 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 "should have found their way to their native obscurity. It does not appear whether A Sovereign Antidote against Sab- batharian Errors, "by a reverend, 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 subsecjuent 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.^ The ■ Works (1672), p. 839. - James's Four Sermons on the Sucram.hls und Sahbuth. p. 25!>. EX(JLAND. 143 follu-wiiig 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 thi« matter, touching Eecreations 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, pitchmg the bar, stool-ball, &c., are rather to be chosen than dicing, card- ing, &c."^ Two other works of similar views belong to the same year. One of them is A Treatise of the Sabbath and the Lovers I)ai/, by David Primerose, minister of the Protestant Church at Rouen. It was " Englished out of his French MS." by his father. Dr. Gilbei-t 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 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 light, " considering that the brevity of it might make it passe and find favour with some, and that being of 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 knowTi, 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 Ansiver to Mr. Henry Burton, both printed in 1637, we 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 ' Eiijht Cases of Conscience (1674), pp. IC, 17. 144 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 those 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.^ 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 those publica- tions were, in some instances, ungenerous enough to twit an un- licensed opponent, who some way or other was enabled to give his sentiments to the w^orld 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 authorities. It was another material deduction from the glory of those anti - Sabbatic writers, 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 com- mand or of archiepiscopal authority, as their reason for writing, pointed to Laud as the ruling star. But this subject more fitly faUs 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 it : accordingly at this time there rose up an host of men, who will ever be ranked among oiu- ablest divines, and who all seemed to follow his course : Bishops White and Bramhall, and 1 Athcii. 0x011. vol. i. p. 480. ENGLAND. 145 Jeremy Taylor, and Sanderson, with Dr. Hammond, and, tliongh last, perhaps not least, Dr. Barrow." The objection, he observ^es, is not to the statement of dnty as made by those 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 friendshij), and the mutual interchange of thought, if we consider how they were all connected together. Brandudl went into Ireland with his patron, Lord Strafford ; White was the friend, Taylor the chap- lain, of Archbishop Laud, l)y 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." i 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- astical benefices." - 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 1 James's Four Sermons, pp. 252-257. - Allien. Oxon. vol. i. p. 840. K 146 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVEESIES. good men," was the leader of a class whose deeds Sir B. Rudyerd thus described and denounced in Parliament : — " We have seene Ministers, their Wives, Children, and Families undone, against law, against conscience, against all bowels of compassion, about not dancing upon Sundayes. AVhat 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 ?"i 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 ow^n practice ; securing for 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. Abbot — L'Sstranc^e — Twisse, and other writehs of 1641. 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- 1 Speeches and Passaaes of this Great at>d Happi/ I'arliameut, pp. 103, 104. ENGLAND. 147 half of the institution in the course of 1641. Two of them — a reprint of the Pattern of Catechistkal Doctrme, by Bishop Andrewes, and the TJieses De Sahhato, by Bishop Lake — were posthumous. The authors of the other works were Hamon, son of Sir Hamon L' Estrange ; Dr. George Hake will, 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 pub- lished by him, was assisted by the MSS. and advice of Archbishoj) Usher ; 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 refeiTcd to ; and Dr. William Twisse, minister of Newbury, a native of its neighbourhood, and Prolocu- tor of the Westminster Assembly, llie Morality of the Fourth Commandment is perhaps the ablest treatise of the year 1G41, and one which deserves ever to rank high amongst works of its class. A profound thinker, and an accomplished debater. Dr. Twisse was no less distinguished as a Christian, who, there is good reason to trast, now enjoys the begun realization of his hope as thus expressed when he was about to die : " Now I shall have leisure to pursue my studies to all eternity." The value of his work, intrinsically great, is enhanced by the already-mentioned sententious and pithy performance of Bishop Lake, which is ap- pended to it. This learned prelate concludes the Theses by say- ing, that while cherishing charity for those who differed from him, and desiring for all the sobriety of judgment commended in Rom. xiv., yet " 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 First and Laud.i In addition to the ingenious treatise of Trenseus I From the following views expressed by Charles, it may be inferred that the Anti-Sabbatic 148 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 Sahbatum Redivivinn 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 MS. 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 Commandment, thereby " losing their cause and the commandment too," or not sufiiciently confuting the opinion. Palmer and Cawdrey were followed by John White, " the Patriarch of Dorchester," in a valuable disser- tation of 1 647 ; by Hezekiah Woodward in 1 648 ; and by Thomas Shepard (1649), whose excellent volume will fall to be again noticed. Fisher — Collier — Collinges — Usher. The opponents of the Sabbatic doctrine of the Puritans and of the Homilies had now for thirteen years been mute on the subject, constrained to silence for the greater part of that time, probably, by a fear of the treatment which befel Pocklingtou and Bray.^ 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 measures of Laud formed no exception to the matters in which, according to Ecbard and Clarendon, the prelate had the hearty concurrence of the king : " I conceive 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 iuio Sunday ; wherefore it must be the Church's authority that changed the one and instituted the other." — Morer's Dialogues, p. 58. 1 In 1641 " the Lower House ordained the Mayor to see them both [Pocklington's Altare Christianum 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 hypo- crites."—Baillie's Letters (1775), vol. i. p. 290. ENGLAND. 149 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. CoUinges 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 ;" 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 Usher 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- spondet, displaying in the renewed effort to destroy the institution all his old zeal, and more than his former subtlety. Eegardless of the Doctor's sophisms, Pearson, afterwards Bishop of Chester, proclaimed, in his Exj^osition 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 awaj^, 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. Remaining Weitees and Conteoveesies. The prolonged discussion of the subject by the friends of the institution has been, in part, owing to the necessity for checking desecrations of the Sabbath which have more or less prevailed. The evils of the Book 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 midti- tude, and whose overdone profession of religion excited only dis- gust and contempt in one class and pity in another. When such 150 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTKOVERSIES. 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 low songs in that glorious gallery."^ 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 tlie 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 1 760, 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 was overflown by superstition." - 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- 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 1 Memoirs (1827), vol. iii. p. 137. 2 Discourse on the Religious Observation oj the Lora's Bay, Preface, p. viii. ENGLAND. 151 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 Brabourne have been followed by Ockford, Sailer and Spittlehouse, Tillam, Chamberlain, Coppinger, the Stennets, the Bampfields, Philanthropos, 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 aH 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, IMorer, Paley, and Ogden, in the eighteenth ; Higgins, Whately, Bannerman (author of the Modern Sabbath Examined), Fearon, Powell, Ai'nold, 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 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 ;" ^ 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 1 Critica Biblica, Tol. ir. p. 200. 152 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVEESIER. 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 nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in the matter of religion, but in the manner," the latter, that " Christians (jught to consecrate as much or more time to religion and mercy than the Jews," witli 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 Mosaic narrative as a marked feature in the theological and spiritual advance of the joresent 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 way ; of Bannerman, who believes that Scripture requires an every-day Sabbath, while he would by no means set aside the poli- tical enactment of a weekly holy day ; of Domville, who main- 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- 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- ENGLAND. 153 futation of Sabbatarianism, works have been published by Hanson, Aspinwall, Warren, Ives, Baxter, Benn, Bimyan, Trosse, Dr. Wallis, Barlow, Keach, Fleming, Dobel, Herbert Jones, Edmonds, with others not expressly devoted to the subject. It Avas 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 3fodest Flea for the Lord's Dai/ (1669), by Dr. CoUinges 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 vindication of the Christian Sabbath (1672), by the eminently devout and philanthropic Mr. Benn of Dorchester. Baxter (1671) and Bunyan (1685) WTote their interesting defences of the Lord's day for relieving the perplexities with which some good peoi^le in their times w^ere distressed in consequence of the proselyting zeal of Saturday Sabbatists. The work of Keach (1700), pubhshed for the same purpose, 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 Trosse of Exeter (1 692), who, like John Bunyan and John Newton, 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 154 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 Figinentum Anglicanum, and designed also for the revival of the same " much despised " doctrine in England,^ it is perhaps as masterly an exposition and defence of the institution as the world has seen. In the Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day, which, though aimed particularly against Sabbatarianism, controverts also other errors, Baxter discovers a mind and attainments of an equally high order, perhaps, as those of Owen, both when he so originally establishes his thesis from the New Testament, and copes so suc- cessfully in the field of history with Heylyn. If in the few pages, where he argues against the formal obligation on Christians of the law of Eden and Sinai, he becomes weak as other men, and ex- poses himself to defeat, as well as impairs the authority and prac- tical rule of the institution, it is to be remembered how cordially, and, we may add, how misgivingly as to the correctness of that opinion, he commends the labours of Abbot and others who dif- fered from him on the point. Dr. Nathaniel Homes, in 1673, held that the Lord's day is a return from the Jewish seventh day to the Patriarchal first day of the week, and was confident enough to entitle his essay, The Sabbath-day's Rest from Controversie. In the same sanguine spirit Thomas Cleandon intended by his Serious and Brief Discourse of' nine .quarto pages (1674) to " decide and determine all controversies respecting the Sabbath- J Letter from Owen to John Eliot (Mather's Ma(jnalia, 1702), pp. 178, 179. ENGLAND. 155 day." With the humbler view of inducing his own children to sanctify the day, Sir Matthew Hale uttered a few words whi(;h have done more to promote its observance than some elaborate volumes. Not to mention a number of writers, whose compen- dious testimonies on the subject belong to another part of this volume, we add, as supporters of the institution in the seventeenth century, Nicholas Smith, Waite, John Gregory, John Smith, Dr. Towerson, Bishop Hopkins, and William Allein. The eighteenth century opens with the defective doctrine of Keach and Grascome,^ and the errors of Morer, but the remedy is at hand in the sound views of Archbishop Sharp, OUyfte, New- come, and Bingham. Practical evil is encountered by the season- able efforts of Hammersley, Howell, Humphries, Nelson, Matthew- Henry, and Bishop Beveridge. If the learned Wotton, in his Miscellaneous Discourses of 1718, and the scholarly Hallet, try to deprive us of the Fourth Commandment as a rule for our observ- ance of the first day of the week, they yet maintain the divine appointment of the Sabbath for all the economies of religion, and their deficiencies as well as mistakes are compensated by the ac- complished Dr. Samuel Wright, in his able volume of 1724 and 1726 ;2 by Robert Hill, Rector of Stanhow, in his Reply to Drs. Heylyn and WalUs ; by the celebrated Dr. Samuel Clarke, in a sermon ; and by Alexander Jephson, Rector of Craike, who pro- duced in 1738, and republished in 1760, an excellent treatise, enriched, like Wright's, with quotations from eminent authors. Dr. Watts, feeling that the abounding desecration of the Sabbath of which Jephson complains, and other evils, were preying on the vitals of Nonconformist churches, had asked them in an earnest appeal of 1731, WJmt do ye more than others ? and afterwards published on the subject of the Sabbatic institution, in his Sermons and Holiness of Times. His admirer, Dr. Doddridge, handles the same topic in his lectures. The learned Dr. Kennicott declares decidedly for a perpetual Sabbath, and in his dissertations of 1747 establishes the article on which that doctrine ultimately depends — the divine institution of the "weekly rest at the creation. Dr. 1 These writers, and Dr. Waliia, rejected the doctrines of a primfeval and patriarchal Sabbath. - Battely"s Original Institution of the Sal>bath (1726) we have not seen. 156 SKETCHES OF SABEATIC CONTROVERSIES. Gibbons, known by his many writings, the zealous Walker of Truro, and the excellent Bishop Gibson, write on the subject wholly in a practical strain. Bolton assails a particular form of Sabbath desecration, while Moses Browne, without the genius of Herbert, makes good verse tributary to the cause. Dr. Webster sketches the history of the institution with more of the Puritan spirit than Grascome, while Catcott and Parry defend its anti- quity— all of them in sermons, Steff'e in 1757 was the first to enlarge on the wisdom and policy of a weekly day of rest and worship, though the Occasional Paper of 1740 may have sug- gested the idea. The controversial blends with the practical in the writings of Drs. Ridgley, Chandler and John Taylor, Richard Amner, Job Orton, Archbishop Seeker, Coetlogon, Bishop Pearce, Jeylinger Symons, Lewelyn, Bishop Porteus, Archdeacon Pott, and Samuel Palmer. The pamphlets of Lowe and Dr. Thomas Home are practical. Dr. Priestley, in controversy with his brother Socinian, Evanson, supports the orthodox opinion, and even Chubb upholds the first against the seventh day of rest. We of course omit many authors in this century whose views, though favourable to a divinely appointed and permanent Sabbath, are only briefly ex- pressed in works on other subjects. In the nineteenth century, efforts on behalf of the Lord's day have been called forth to an unparalleled extent. One of the most effective assaults on the abounding desecration of the day pro- ceeded from a meeting of the friends of the London Christian Instruction Society, held in 1829. To this was owing the publi- cation of several useful works by Sherman, Clayton, and Burder, with a reprint of the Essays by Dr. Heman Humphrey of America. Bishop Blomfield printed in 1830 his Letter to the inhabitants of London, which led to important results. The matter was taken up in the pulpit ; the press was employed ; the Lord's-day Society was formed ; the country was everywhere roused. Parliament became an arena of the controversy, and its discussions operated beneficially among the upper ranks and in foreign lands, while the evidence collected by its means, and through the exertions of Sir Andrew Agnew, has been and will remain an inexhaustible arsenal for supplying the means of defence and attack in the cause of a lioly Sabbath. ENGLAND. 157 The amount of authorship which has been elicited on behalf of the institution in this centuiy is immense. When we have ad- vanced in it some years we find the path covered with writings, " thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa." Many of them, though ephemeral, may have done much good in their respective circles. A few that appear to us the more impor- tant may be named. Bishop Horsley, as the late Dr. Wilson said, has " three noble sermons on the subject, in which he powerfully maintains the generally received doctrine," though, as the Doctor justly added, " he errs in considering the Sabbath more of a posi- tive than moral character." Dean Milner presents both argument and practice with energetic brevity. The Christian Sabbath of Holden, notwithstanding some prolix digressions, is one of the best modern discussions of the subject. Dr. Daniel Wilson's volume is scarcely inferior to that of Holden. Of the treatise of Thorn, it is enough to say that it is recommended by men of note, including John Foster and Robert Hall, and that it had in 1830 reached its seventh edition. More or less complete publications — some of them bearing the impress of the well-known genius and scholarship of their authors — have been furnished by Gurney, Con- der, Treffry, Charlotte Elizabeth, Drs. Croly and Richard W. Hamil- ton, the Woolwich Lecturers, Johnstone, Ball, and Hill, or author of an essay considered the best of thirty-seven in competition for a prize. Some have appeared to advantage in conflict with op- ponents of the common doctrine, as Hey of Leeds, in replying to Dr. Paley ; Atcheson, to Mons. Beausobre ; James of Cobham, to Dr. Heylyn ; Cameron, Foster (CoUon), Barter, and particularly Professor Samuel Lee and Archdeacon Stopford, to Archbishop Whately ; Brooke, to Burnside and Bannerman ; Bouchier, to H. Mayhew ; a writer in the London Quarterly Review, to Powell ; M'Guire, to Langley ; and O'Neil, with others, to Reichel. Some have happily illustrated particular departments of the question, as Jordan, who has thrown light on septenary institutions in heathen- dom, and Baylee, who has usefully laboured in the fields of history and statistics. Others have effectually exposed certain errors and abuses, as a Layman, who ably assails the Sunday newspaper ; Kingsmill, who impressively warns his countrymen against the attempts of Anti-Sabbatic writers. Leagues, and shareholders in 158 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CoNTKOVEllSIKS. railways and the Crystal Palace, to bring them under his charge as chaplain of a prison ; Arthur, who exhibits with gra- phic power the evils of a French Sunday ; Napier, who in Parlia- ment eloquently deprecated the opening of the British Museum on the Lord's Day ; Baptist Noel, who applied his earnest spirit to the dispersing of Sunday music bands ; and Henry Rogers, who exerted his great talents, that might have found still more fitting exercise on the whole question, to crush the fancy that access to places of public amusement on the Sabbath would be in any oiu^ shape a boon to our people. The enemies of the divine and salutary law of a weekly holy rest have, doubtless, by their principles and measures, done much injury, and to none more than themselves ; but they have hitherto found it, as all who make the attempt will ever find it, impossible to eff'ect its overthrow. Opposition has not only awakened pro- founder inquiry among many concerning its claims, but served to animate the zeal of Christian men on its behalf, and to bind them together in a phalanx, which, going forth under the leadership of the Lord of the Sabbath, may be expected to place the institution, in due time, above " the strife of tongues," and the rude foot of practical violation, thereby closing the history of Sabbatic contro- versies, if not also of Sabbatic literature, in England. UNITED STATES. It has been the happiness of North America that her founda- tions were to such an extent laid in religion, and that, destined to be the resort of persons of all characters and fortunes from the old world, she has at various times received into her territory many of the best of men, bringing with them, for the counterac- tion of her evils and the advancement of her prosperity, Christian principles, institutions, and manners. The earnest prayers and hallowed Sabbaths of her founders and settlers Iiave entailed on her a rich and long-continued blessing, wdiich it is to be hoped will prevail to the overthrow of whatever tends to cut it off. One of the chief cares of the Pilgrim Fathers, as of those who preceded them from Holland, and followed them from England, UNITED STATES. 159 was the due observance of the sacred rest. In the earliest records of the Dutch colonists in New York, there are decrees of the most stringent character, intended to guard the infant com- munity against the demoralizing tendencies of Sabbath profana- tions,^ There are still earlier records of attention on the part of the English settlers to this subject. Whether they established themselves in New Plymoutli, Salem, or Cambridge, they alike felt the sanctification of the Lord's day to be an all-important matter. Few will justify all the measures employed by them for enforcing the duty, but their reverence and regard for the institu- tion were indubitable. It was not long, however, before roots of bitterness springing up troubled them. The most serious of their early trials is thus described by Samuel Rutherford : — " They were not well established in New England, when Antinomians sprang up among them, for the Church cannot be long without enemies. These were libertines, Familists, Antinomians, and enthu- siasts, who had brought these wicked opinions out of Old England with them, where they grew under prelacy. I heard at London, that godly preachers were in danger of being persecuted by Laud for striving to reclaim some Antinomians. Divers of them be- came unclean, they had no prayer in their family, no Sabbath, insuf- ferable pride, hideous lying."- But union is strength. A Synod was called. Tlie errors were unanswerably refuted, and unani- mously condemned. " And so the Lord," says Shepard, who was mainly instrumental in closing the career of Ann Hutchinson and her party, " within one year wrought a great change among us, having delivered the country from war with the Indians and Familists, who rose and fell together."^'' But it was not so easy, especially by fines and the stocks, to rid the country of some otlier errors and evils in relation to the Lord's day. We find several ministers — Cotton, Hooker, and Cobbet — corresponding with Shepard, and stating arguments for the common doctrine,^ as if the matter engaged their serious con- sideration, and had been or were about to be canvassed in the pul- 1 Decrees of Peter Stui^vesanf, 1847, 1848. Tfu' Sabbath in New York, i- 6. 2 Spiritual Antichrist, pp. 171, 180. 3 Albro's Life of Thomas Shepard, pp. cxxv. cxxvi, * Felt's Ecclesiastical History of Nev England, pp. Sot', G04, (514. 160 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. pit or through the press. The points on one or other of which certain persons had difficulties and doubts, were the morality and the day of the Sabbath. ^ Mr. Shepard, we know, did preach a course of sermons on the whole subject of the institution, which were " thrown into the form of theses or short propositions at the earnest request, and for the particular use of the students of Harvard College," and afterwards, in substance, published in 1649.^ Dr. Albro, his American biographer, justly eulogizes the Theses Sabbat icce, as "a masterly discussion of the morality, the change, the beginning, and the sanctification of the Sabbath." Thomas Shepard, who w^as obnoxious to Laud, retired to America in 1635, was first pastor of the first church, Cambridge, Mass., and is well known as the author of several practical works, parti- cularly sermons on the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which, when preached, accomplished their object of contributing to put down the Antinomian heresy in New England. It was said of him, that he " scarce ever preached a sermon, but some one or other of his congregation were struck with great distress, and cried out in agony, ' What shall I do to be saved ?' "^ And he himself, ad- dressing some young ministers, said on his deathbed, " First, that the studying of every sermon cost him tears ; he Avept in the studying of every sermon. Secondly, before he preached any sermon, he got good by it himself. Thirdly, he always went up into the pulpit, as if he were to give up his accounts unto his Master."-^ The churches in New England, having, at a Synod in 1648, adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith as their doctrinal creed, continued to maintain its Sabbatic as well as other prin- ciples. The accounts we have of their ministers, in the Magnalia and other records, show how holy they were, and how observant of the sacred rest. What they practised they inculcated. Thus John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians, himself a man of distin- giiished piety and benevolence, brought his converts to engage that " they would remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy as long 1 Felt's Ecclesiastical Ilistori/ of New Enpland, pp. 587, 614. - Besides the edition in his Collected Works (1853), there is one before us of the year lt)50, and we have seen another which appeared in 1655. 3 Life, p. clxxx. * Mather's Magnalia (170'2), p. 238. UNITED STATES. 161 as they lived." At a Synod held in 1662, the churches again pro- fessed their adherence to the doctrines of the Westminster Confession, with those of the Savoy Confession. And they were zealous to up- hold the practice equally as the theory of the institution. In 1679, when various calamities had befallen the country, a Synod was convened to consider the reasons and remedies, when it was agreed that one of the causes of Providential frowns was the profanation by many of the Lord's day. Some years thereafter we find the churches solemnly renewing their covenant to " walk circum- spectly," and declaring, as they did in like manner of various other practices, " It would be a great evil in us, if we should not keep a strict guard both on our own thoughts as well as words and works on the Lord's day ; and also on all that are under our influence, to restrain them from the violations of that sacred rest." The scene somewhat resembles the remarkable one in Scotland at the meeting of the General Assembly of 1596. And probably it was more to promote objects of this practical nature than to combat error — though this accompanies wrong actions, and must likewise be opposed — that Increase Mather, father of Dr. Cotton Mather, and a writer on various topics of religion, history, politics, and philosophy, published, in 1712, Meditations on the Sanctification of the Lord's Day ; and that Samuel Willard, a minister in Boston, and vice-president of Harvard College, wrote so largely on the fourth commandment, in his Body of Divinity, which was printed in 1726. The illustrious Jonathan Edwards follows. In his three ser- mons on the perpetuity and change of the Sabbath, he fully achieves his object, which is the establishment of two propositions. " Fir^st, It is sufficiently clear, that it is the mind of God, that one day of the week should be devoted to rest and religious exer- cises, throughout all ages and nations. Second, It is sufficiently 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 wdth the great body of Christian men, are not evident to others simply because they will not see. The L 162 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTKOVERSIES. sermons appear to have been written and preached within a few j'-ears 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 condemna- tion of the prevailing practice of devoting the evening of the Sabl^ath, and tlie 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 Sf/stem of Doctrine. 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 rongregation in Hartford, Connecticut, and " distinguished for his discernment and knowledge of men." His two volumes of sermons, printed in 179^, 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 begim 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 hundred and 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 publicatioji, somewhere between 1817 and 1819, the eloquent prelections must have served in America and in tliis country to awaken similar convic- tions in multitudes of readers. The late Bishop of Calcutta, UNITED STATES. 163 referring to the autlior, said, " This last name deserves especial notice. Dr. D wight, as well as his illustrious countryman, Edwards, has honoured the American school of theology — rapidly increasing in importance — with a most convincing and al3le discus- sion of the question in all its branches, both theoretical and practical : they perhaps form the l)est of our modern treatises, though it would be unjust to Dr. Humphrey, of Amherst College, to withhold a tribute of applause from his excellent Essays." ^ If America had produced no other works on the Sabbath than liave 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 Hej^orfs 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 TJie SabbatJi Manual. There are also works by Phelp, Drs. Stone and Barnes, which we have not seen. Drs. Emmons, Wood, and Wayland, the last avowedly boiTOwing from Gurne}-, devote portions of their able wTitings to the institution. The Rev. L. Coleman has brought his historical lore to the enforce- ment of Sabbatic claims and duties in liis Christian Antiquities, and Historical Sketch of the Christian Sabbath in the Blhliotheca Sac7'a (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 Soutliern Fresbyterkni Review. The Tract Society has printed a number of useful publications on the observance of the institution, including valuable tracts by Drs. Plumer, Sjjring, 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, wo have seen no abler defences of the weekly holy day than tv/o > Dr Daniel Wilson's Si'ven Si'rmons. Preface. 164 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. articles wliich have appeared in the Princeton Review, under tlie titles, " Sunday Mails" (1831) and " Sunday Laws" (1859), the latter said to be from the pen 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 ? — 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 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 UNITED STATES. 165 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 particidar 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, oiu- Saviour, and our Bibles, 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 om' legislative bodies, or have chaplains in our hospitals, prisons, navy, or army ; that we must 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 humbly 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, 166 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. and as a Government, you ask what it is impossible can be granted. We must obey God. We must carry our religion into our family, our workshops, our banking-houses, our municipal and other governments ; and if you cannot live with Christians, you must go elsewhere."^ 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 SCOTLAXD. It may to some appear out of place to introduce, under the head of controversies on the Sabbath, a countiy where we ought to look for the fraits 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 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 thi-ee 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, 1 British and Foreign EvangeUcal Revietc for January 1860. 2 Dr. Schmucker's Appeal in behalf of the Christian Sabbath, p. 15. SCOTLAND. 1 67 speedily availed himself of his increased power to attempt the fiubversion 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 ii. and James ii. — 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 couJd not be obsei^ved 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 w^ere 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 countiy 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 Parhament from time to time passed Acts, for the most part suggested by the Church 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 168 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTKOVERSIES. 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 not 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 inlaying at foot-ball on the Lord's day.i 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 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." ^ Among 1 Mr. John Davidi^on, minister at Prestonpans, by whose powerful appeals the Assembly 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 ordained you only to be rebuked ;' and turning to the Synod, he said, ' And now, brethren, let me tell you what reward you shall get for your lenity ; these two men shall trami)le on your necks, and the necks of the ministrie of Scotland.' " — Livwfistone's Memorable Characteristics. Wod. Sue. Si^l. Bhvjraph., p. 296. - Hist. ofJii.i Own Time (1850), p. 102. SCOTLAND. 169 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 1574, 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."^ 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 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 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 occasionally in later times. 170 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTROVERSIES. 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 l)oy David, " not to come near anybody that wouhl swear, lie, speak what was bad, or break the Sabbath ; " Boston'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 Moncriett"s 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 judgment;" and 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 God ;" when 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. Nor 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 efibrts SCOTLAND. 171 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 ov/n people, yet largely also to $ the inhabitants of other regions of the globe.^ Rutherford entered 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 Ads ; David Calderwood, in his A Itare Damascemtm ; 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 Ee-examination of the Five Articles of Perth, belonging to the year 1636, (Jalderwood has what may be called a Treatise on the Sabbath, in v, hich he defends the commonly-received doctrine Avith learning and power. Dr. Guild, of Aberdeen, wrote in 1637 an earnest remonstrance against a particular form of Sab- bath profanation in his neighbourhood. But the next writer, who, though he resided and published in England, was born and edu- cated in 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 Dies Dominica appeared without the name of writer, publisher, printer, or the place where it was prepared or printed, was a sign of the times, and, along with the fact that no 1 I am informed that Mr. Henderson had a chief hand in drawing up the Confession of Faithand Catechisms, and X)SinicnliiT\y the Director^/ for Worship and Ordinaiion. — Wod- rutc's Correspondence, vol. iii. pp. 32, 33. 172 SKETCHES OF SABBATIC CONTEOVEESIES. 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 inquire after it, and a translation of it, which a worthy knight had by him, was published in 1672. In a Pre- face to the translation, Baxter extols the author as a man " emi- nent 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 lormer 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,^ 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-men- tioned situation, which he filled with great ability, he was ejected for refusing the engagement, or promise of fidelity to the Common- wealth as established without a king or House of Lords. He was one of the authors of Smectymnuus, having, according to Baillie, contributed " the most part " of it. The man who filled so many important ofl&ces with the highest reputation, and who impressed alike the experienced Baxter and the youthful Milton, with feelings of regard and admiration, the latter representing him as the half of his life, and as having inspired him with the love of poetry, must have been distinguished by intellectual gifts and moral excellence of no common order. ^ Among the many other Scottish writers who did honour to their 1 For these facts we are indebted to the researches of Masson.— See his Life of Millon, pp. 53, 54. 2 See Milton's Elegia Quarta ad Thomam Junium, and his Familiar Epistles, of which two are addressed to Dr. Young. In the Elegy the poet says : — " Ule 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, Clioque favente, Castalio sparsi laeta ter ora mero." SCOTLAND. • 173 country and to the seventeenth century, and who asserted the Divine claims of the Sabbath, we are not aware of any one Avho wrote a separate treatise or tract on the institution except Brown of Wamphray, and Crawford, whose able works have been men- tioned in connection 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 Edinburgh, has devoted to the Fourth Commandment some seven- teen pages of his Fhilo8/^_ p. 42. 3 Four Months amoyig the Gold-findas in Alta California, pp. 58-60, 82, i Permanent Sabbath Doaiments, No. 1, pp. 27, 28. 5 Venn's Funeral Sermon for Mr. Wilberforce. PHYSICAL RELATIONS. 191 add the remarkable saying of Coleridge, who, although not a Puritan in this matter, was weU able to attest the value of the hebdomadal rest to the wearied mind. " I feel as if God had, by giving the Sabbath, given fifty-two springs in the year." A very interesting department of our subject respects the benefit accruing from a weekly day of rest to certain of the lower animals. These creatures have in common with man physical natures, which are worn down by excessive labour and recruited by rest. They are observed to be amenable to laws of health and disease no less unerring, and in some instances even more appreciable, than those which apply to theu' masters. And it is found that such of them as are employed in our service require equally as we the rest of the seventh day. The statement made before a statistical society by Mr. Bianconi of Clonmel in Ireland, proprietor at the time of one hundred and ten vehicles which travelled from eight to ten miles an hour, is well known. He mentioned that none of the cars, except those connected with the mail, were run on Sunday ; that he found it much easier to work a horse eight miles every week-day, in place of six miles, than an additional six miles on Sundays ; and that by this plan there is a saving of thirteen per cent., adding, I am persuaded that man cannot be wiser than his Maker. ^ Intelligent coach-proprietors have confirmed the views of Bianconi.'-^ And an American writer, after adducing some interesting facts in proof of the necessity of the Sabbath's rest to man and beast, proceeds to say, " Great numbers have made similar experiments, and uniformly with similar results ; so that it is now settled hy facts, that the observ- ance of the Sabbath is required by a natural law, and that were man nothing more than an animal, and were his existence to be confined to this world, it would be for his interest to observe the Sabbath." 3 1 See Life of Sir A. Agneic, p. 29. - Report on the Observance of the Sabbath-day from Select Committee of House of Commons, &c. (1832), pp. 126, 127, 130. 3 Permanent Documents, No. 1, pp. 40, i\. 192 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER 11. ADAPTATION OF THE SABBATH TO THE CONSTITUTION AND IMPEOVEMENT OF THE HUMAN MIND. " I am prepared to afiarm that, to the studious especially, and whether youuger 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." Isaac Taylor. That the Sabbatic institution is eminently calculated to pro- mote the intellectual improvement of mankind, will appear from two considerations. First, it affords regularly the opportunity and facilities for desisting from pursuits which, if not so interrupted, are fatal to mental cultivation, and a season for employing the means of im- proving the mind, which, without such an institution, could not be provided. Let us look at this consideration, in the first instance, as ap- plying to persons whose occupations are of an intellectual rather than of a physical nature, men of science and literature, states- men, financiers, merchants, and others. It is well known that the exertion of thought on any subject, if prolonged beyond a cer- tain time, is detrimental to both body and mind. Health fails, and nothing is more unfavourable to mental vigour than physical exhaustion. The views become clouded ; the power of attention is impaired ; and the result of persistence in such a course must, as already remarked, be idiocy, insanity, or death. What would liave prevented those evils ? Nothing but a discontinuance of the customary mental exertion. It is not the activity of the intellect, but its activity as put forth in one uniform mode, that does the injury. The cure, or the preventive, as the case may be, must be INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS. 193 sought for, not in total rest, which is not necessary, and is indeed from the nature of spirit, impossible, but in variety of exercise. There must be, in fact, a regularly recurring day on which th'^ current of thought shall flow in a new channel — a day neither too frequent nor too rare in its return. And it must be prescribed, not by physicians, or by any human law merely, but by an indis- putable, over-awing authority, as well as be connected with engage- ments and sanctions fitted to absorb in themselves, and neutralize the most powerful attractions and propensities that bind men to their ordinary pursuits. Let us next turn for a moment to the case of the far greater number who subsist by the work of their hands. To them a Sabbath is no less necessary, intellectually, than to the other class. Were there no such day, the continual drudgery to which they should be consigned would preclude every means of mental culture. Working-men there must be ; and it is manifest that if their toils were interrupted only by night and an occasional holi- day, there could be no disposition, motive, or even time, for acquiring knowledge and otherwise improving their minds. While the every-day labour in many trades ought to be lessened, there must, moreover, be periodical seasons, and these at no great intervals, which the labourer can count upon and call his own — there must, in other words, be a weekly Sabbath. But, second, the Sabbatic institution provides subjects and occu- pations fitted to stimulate and discipline the faculties of the human mind. The period that can be allowed the great majority of men in a civilized country for cessation from their ordinary business, must necessarily be a small proportion of their whole time. It would, therefore, require to be well husbanded and laid out, so as most eff'ectually to secure to intellectual labourers engagement on sub- jects the most important, and yet the most diverse from those that usually engross their thoughts, and to manual labourers the best nourishment and exercise for their spiritual nature. If so brief and precious a season be not thus spent, it might, in so far as mental profit is concerned, be as well not possessed at all. And to the mass of men there must in such a matter be prescription. To leave them in ignorance and uncertainty as to the wanner of N 194 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. employing. tlieii' leisure time, would be, in. the far greater number of cases, to render the time useless, or rather a burden and a curse. How fully does the Sabbath meet those demands ! Its work, as well as its specific time, is appointed. In adaptation to our constitution, that work is not only different from the secular business of other days, but diversified in its parts, uniting the public, . the domestic, and the personal — the pleasure and the profit of acquiring knowledge, by the various channels of reading, hearing, and reflection — and the opportunities of imparting in- struction and administering comfort to our fellow-creatures. Such are the wise arrangements and determination of the work of the day. Then Avhat grander, more interesting or more beneficial sub- jects can be presented to human inquiry than creation and its works — the world in its divine government and redemption — the Supreme Being in his infinite and glorious perfections — the rela- tion of man to his Maker, to the present scene, and to a future state — the cause and results of his manifest depravation — and the knowledge, purity, and happiness, which are the destined inherit- ance of a coming age 1 What engagements, too, can be more ennobling or gladdening than drawing near to the Eternal, offer- ing him homage, investigating his character and works, and cele- brating his praise. Intelligent on such topics, and stimulated by such exercises^, v.diat higher learning or better mental training can a man receive — to what other kind of knowledge or intellectual effort, can he be either indifferent or inadequate ] There is one special means of favourably influencing the general mind, which may be considered as almost identified with the Sabbath, being a kindred institution that has sprung up with it, and shared its fortunes of prosperity or decay. We refer to the pulpit. One man has by previous training been prepared for the office of a preacher, and devotes himself to the collection of those stores of truth which he gives out on the first day of the week to hundreds or thousands, whereby he stirs dormant faculties, enlightens ignorance, and suggests topics for consolation and en- couragement under the toils and trials of life. The work of one saves that, of many, and as he profits by the exertions of the INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS. 195 mercliant, Imsbandman, and mechanic, so they receive the fruit of his studies without being subjected to his peculiar labours. When to these considerations we add the power of the living voice, the sympathies of associated hearers, and above all, the magnitude of the themes illustrated and enforced, we venture to afl&rm that no means are more adapted to the constitution and improvement of the human mind, than the Christian pulpit. The fit occupant of so commanding a post must wield a mighty influence over the minds of his fellow-men. " The messenger of truth" — " Ai-med himself in panoply complete Of heavenly temper, furnishes with arms Bright as his own, and trains, by every rule Of holy discipline, to glorious war, The sacramental host of God's elect. Are all such teachers ? Would to heaven all were!" There is another specific means of intellectual benefit connected with the institution — Sabbath-evening instruction — which may be ranked next in importance to the pulpit itself. By requiring from children and domestics an account of what they have heard from their ministers during the day, and by catechetical exer- cises on that evening, heads of families may largely promote their own improvement and that of their households. Where these duties are conducted with wisdom and aff"ection, what an amount of information may be lodged in the memories, what an impulse given to the faculties, of teachers and taught. Nor is this the only way in which the evening of a holy day can be turned to account in the communication of knowledge. Many are so cir- cumstanced as to have it in their power to take charge of young- persons who have no others to care for their welfare, and Sabbath schools prove, like parental tuition and deeds of charity, the means of blessing both the givers and the receivers. If there were no such day, however, or if it were devoted to manual labour or to pleasure, the vast machinery of mental and moral education to which we have now referred could not exist. But valuable as are the engagements of the day in these respects, we should not fully estimate their worth, if we did not take into account the means of instruction and mental improvement on other days, which they stimulate and maintain. ] 9 6 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. The Sabbatic institution stands related not merely to the public teaching of the preacher, but to the more frequent private mini- strations of the pastor. The presence of such a man, educated as he ought ever to be and usually is, must be a light to his neigh- bours. By his conversation in company — by his official visits from house to house — by his attention to the young — by his en- couragement of reading and education — and by the necessity laid upon him, in connexion with other office-bearers of the Church, to exclude the grossly ignorant from certain Christian privileges, he is perhaps more than any other single individual the instrument of awakening inquiry and diffusing knowledge. While idleness, secular work, and frivolous or worse pursuits on the sacred day, give their corresponding tone to the mind in the progress of the week, the person who has been on that day con- versant with highly intellectual and interesting themes will be constrained to follow out those trains of thought which such engage- ments have originated. One inquiry suggests another. Acqui- sitions are successively made. And thus from week to week the man advances in the highest, most comprehensive, most useful of all departments of knowledge — the knowledge of himself, and of the Being who alone presents an object that answers the demands of the human understanding, and satisfies the cravings of the human heart. The observer of the Sabbath, moreover, is induced by its in- structions, and by his own conscience and inclinations to practise, daily, certain duties than which no means can be conceived more subservient to intellectual profit. He who has on that day heard with proper earnestness and interest the public reading and exposi- tion of portions of the sacred volume, must desire to repair to its pages for further information, and for testing the sentiments of the preacher. Every one knows the effect of persevering diligence in any pursuit. And what must be the expanding, assimilating power of a Book, containing confessedly the loftiest truths, the most perfect rules of morals, the finest poetry, the most ancient history, the most graphic pictures of nature, the profoundest views of man, the noblest strains of eloquence, over the mind of him who " gives his days and his nights " to its perusal ? If the say- ing, " Beware of the man of one book," as intimating the Intel- INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS. 197 lectiial prowess of such a reader, was ever in its fullest sense applicable to any one, it must have been to the student of the greatest and best of books — the Bible. To the searching of the Scriptures, the friend of the Sabbath adds a service no less effectual for mental elevation. He holds intercourse by prayer with the All-wise and the Almighty. And if converse with the intelligent has the effect of informing and expanding the mind, how mighty the influence on the intellectual faculties of frequent communion with "the Father of lights !" It is the practice of all heads of families who are marked by their reverence for the Lord's day, to convene their households morning and evening, when possible, for devotion, including praise, the reading of the Word of God, and prayer. " This is a school of religious instruction. The whole contents of the sacred volume are in due course laid open before the members of the family. Every day they are recei^dng ' line upon line, precept upon pre- cept.' A fresh accession is continually making to their stock of knowledge ; new truths are gradually opened to their view, and the impressions of old truths are revived."^ That this admirable discipline of the intellect is provided by the authority which appointed the day of sacred rest might be shown. It is sufficient, however, for our present purpose to state, that Sabbath observers feel both an obHgation and a disposition to follow up their public services on that day with those of personal and domestic devotion. When David, king of Israel, had been employed in the public acts of religion, he " returned to bless his household." " Public exer- cises of religion, w^hen properly conducted, have a happy tendency to prepare the mind for those of a more private nature. When the soul is elevated and the heart softened by the feelings which public worship is calculated to inspire, we are prepared to address the throne of grace with peculiar advantage ; we are disposed to enter with a proper relish on such a duty, and thus to go from strength to strength." ^ To the means of intellectual improvement furnished by the in- stitution, may be added the useful reading, the rational con- versation, and the meetings for religious conference, for secular instruction, and for other important objects to which the friends 1 Robert Halls W^rks, 12mo. vol. v. p. 289. - Ibid. pp. 283, 284. 198 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. of the Sabbath are incited by its teachings and studies, and which, while indisposing for and precluding indolence and unworthy occu- pations, make them intelligent and acute on all subjects that con- cern their true interests. The desire of knowledge, awakened in reference to the momentous matters of religion, will " seek to intermeddle with all wisdom." From the account of the educational provisions of the Sabbath which has thus been presented, it might be conclusively inferred that an institution so adapted to the constitution and improvement of the human mind must yield correspondent fruit ; in other words, that individuals must be distinguished by intelligence, and communities by civilisation, in proportion as they have observed a weekly day of sacred rest. It ought to require no tedious process of reasoning, or long array of facts, to convince any one that a person who rests every seventh day from severe intellectual efforts, and refreshes his spirit for new exertions, will be more enlightened and more capable of adding to the stock of human knowledge than another who goes on in an unrelieved, unvarying, and there- fore depressing and enfeebling course of application to the same studies. Argument and evidence ought still less to be demanded in support of the very obvious truth, that the man who spends fifty-two days of the year in dealing with the most intellectual and varied of all subjects, will be superior in mental capacity and acquirements to him who spends the same amount of time in un- remitting bodily toil, or in mere recreation and amusement. In proportion as this is true of the individuals composing a society, it must be true of the aggregate body. The inveterate dislike to the institution, however, which has set many to the utmost stretch of their ingenuity for the purpose of perplexing and complicating a very plain matter, requires us to show that intellectual improve- ment, besides being among the adaptations, is everywhere the actual result of a hallowed Sabbath. What Sabbath-observing nation, it has been asked, has ever been barbarous or ignorant ? The lands of the Sabbath and of the Bible have always been the chosen abodes of knowledge, and the lights of the earth. The Jews were in possession of a literature when darkness covered all other people. Every nation that received the gospel and the Christian Sabbath found them to be INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS. 199 the elements of learning and civilisation. Corrupted though Christianity soon became, it remained even in the dark ages in some measure an asylum of literature, and a conservator of learned works. Whence that corruption ? Rome perverted the Sabbath, discouraged the general reading of the sacred volume, and well- nigh quenched the light of the pulpit in spectacles, pageants, buf- foonery, and the mysteries of the mass, and its life in paeans to Maiy and curses against heretics, proving herself then, as she is still, an incubus on the progress of Europe to light and pros- perity. But the Reformation, which liberated the sacred day from human impositions, raised it from the degrading level of un- authorized festivals, restored the Scriptures to unrestricted use, and elevated the pulpit to its place as the great instrument of un- folding and enforcing sacred truth and law, was everywhere the reviver of letters, and the nurse of a spirit of inquiry and intelli- gence. Let England and France, Scotland and Spain, Canada Upper and Canada Lower, the United States and Mexico, Ulster and Connaught, show how much intellectual character is affected by the presence or absence of a holy Sabbath. No country has continued so long to maintain its superiority in respect of the attainments of its learned men, and the general intelligence of its people, as Britain ; and in no country has more regard been evinced to the Lord's day. Next in order to Britain comes America, advancing with rapid strides in " the march of intellect " as well as of religion, and already, perhaps, in the department of common education, outstripping its rival. Nor in their own mental supremacy merely, but in taking the lead of all others as pro- pagators of knowledge and civilisation throughout the world, do these great nations exhibit the power of the principles which it is the business of the Sabbath to expound and conserve, to enforce and diffuse. Never was more done in defence of the institution, or more of its spirit felt, than from the middle of Elizabeth's reign to the Restoration, a period which a high authority pro- nounces to be unequalled in point of " real force and originality of genius " by any other age, those of Pericles, of Augustus, of Leo X., and of Louis xiv., being unworthy of comparison with it.^ 1 Francis Jeffrey. See Edinburgh Revietc, vol. xviii. pp. 27.5, 276 ; and Jeffi-e>'s Contri- htdions to the Edinburgh Recieiv, vol. ii. pp. 38, 39. 200- ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. No less distinguished, as regards the body of the people, were the times in the history of Scotland when not only the claims and observance of the Lord's day were contended for, but efforts were successfully made to set up an adequate number of schools in every parish, as well as to raise a high standard of theological literature ; and the times of those Puritans who settled in America, and who, the friends of a day of holy rest, were also educated and intelligent men, few if any of them being unable to read, and one of the first subjects of their attention being a suit- able provision for the establishment of common schools and academies. In our own day, it is Sabbath-observing parents who are most anxious to have their children educated ; it is Sabbath- keeping artisans who are the most diligent readers of their class, as well as the most numerous pupils in our schools of art. The fact of one thousand and forty-five working men having written essays on the institution — all of them creditable to the writers — six hundred of them so respectable, as, in the opinion of a gentle- man who had carefully examined them, to be worthy of appearing in print, and a few such as would have done no discredit to the most practised pens, is indeed a phenomenon in the literary world, which nothing but the mighty power of the Sabbath and of its connected influences can explain. Many working men, however, have no weekly resting-day. Now, as one of the above-mentioned writers asks, " When did we ever meet with any one who from the nature of his employment is required to labour on the Sabbath as on other days, who has come out of his obscurity, and taken his stand as an author in literature, science, morals, or religion ? Indeed," as he adds, " no one expects it ; the bare supposition is ludicrous."^ And yet those men are not inferior in natural capacities to other men. Their frequent efforts to obtain emancipa- tion from their protracted hours of labour, that they might enjoy the rest of the seventh day, have evinced a desire of better things, as well as a deep conviction, that, while the cause of their degradation is the loss of that sacred season, its recovery is the main instrument for elevating their mental condition. If the Sabbath had done nothing more than promote the intelli- gence and civilisation of the masses, it would be entitled to our 1 The Univei-sal Treasure, p. 125. INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS. 201 high regards. But this is not its only intellectual triumph. It blesses in the same way all classes of minds that come under its influence. In the department of secular knowledge, it is a means of good to both foes and friends ; to foes, who are trained in youth under its auspices, and afterwards feel the salutary impulse of its encompassing spirit ; to friends, among whom may ever be discovered the most distinguished men in all kinds of mental endowments and exertion, with a few, such as Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Jonathan Edwards, who by gene- ral consent occupy a pre-eminent place among the intellectually great. And there is another department of knowledge, the spiri- tual, belonging exclusively to true Christians, who, in proportion as they have maintained the integrity and honour of their religious institutions, have, by " rising from nature " to its Author, by searching after " the cause of causes," and in the range of their vision taking in the infinite and eternal, proved themselves to be- long to a higher order of intelhgences, and to possess far greater grasp and power of mind than those philosophers, scholars, and sages, who are learned in tlie writings of men, but not in the Word of God ; who have measured the distance of the stars, and told us what is contained in the bowels of the earth, but have not soared to the heaven above, nor sounded the hell below ; who have calculated the period of an eclipse, but not the hour of death ; who have explored the constitution of the soul, but con- sidered not its accountableness or destination ; who have wasted themselves in investigating the changes which this earth has undergone, without a single reflection on their concern in that great crisis, when " the earth with its works shall be burnt up." 2 02 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER III. MORAL AND KELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE SABBATH. " A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath." — Blackstone. " II n'y a pas de religion sans culte, et il n'y a pas de culte sans dimancbe." MONTALESIBERT. John Fostee describes the Sabbath as "a remarkable ap- pointment for raising the general teuour of moral existence."^ The saying, and that of Blackstone, as may afterwards appear, are abundantly verified by facts. Meanwhile, a brief inquiry into the rationale of the matter will discover grounds for accredit- ing the institution with the results uniformly seen to follow its observance — in other words, for identifying it as an essential instrument in their production. First, then, if we view the weekly holy day as a periodical pause of labour, we shall find that it is conducive to the interests of morality. Its regular rest recruits the animal frame, and prevents some strong temptations to intemperance. Men must have either rest, or artificial means of enabling them to sustain an unnatural amount of eftbrt. The Sabbath provides the former, intoxicating drink supplies the latter. The weekly season of free- dom from toil and trouble secures also a regadar opportunity for the cultivation of domestic intercourse, that powerful incentive to virtue. In the nature of things can virtue thrive, or vice fail to abound, among married persons wlHf) are deprived of the soothing, refining influences of home, and must not the unmarried be led by the same circumstances to forego the hope of honourable matrimony, and to resort to an unhallowed substitute 1 Incessant labour, moreover, renders moral improvement impracticable, as it allows no sufficient or regular time for attention to the matter. It op- 1 Evils of Popular Ignorance (1839), pp. 47, 48. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 203 presses and irritates the workman, and thus tempts him to save his exertions by a hurried unfaithful performance of his task, or by the still easier process of stealing or begging his bread. And from the contracting influence of one ever-present engrossing ob- ject, as well as from the controlling, assimilating power of scenes of impurity and discomfort, it not only prevents expansion of mind beyond the narrow sphere of his own fatigues and wants, and precludes any lofty aspirings to what is either good or great, but tends to sink the man in the animal — to brutalize him — to make him utterly selfish and savage, unless, as sometimes happens, it reduce him to so entire a prostration of spirit and energy as to render him incapable of doing much of either good or evil Scarcely less immoral in its tendency is mental toil, absorbing as it does the mind in its one subject, so that no other can command its interest, and impairing the intellectual and physical powers, the health and vigour of which are so necessary to high moral attainments, and to sustained moral efforts. But, secondly, we must consider the Sabbath as a day of in- struction and worship in order to complete the evidence of its moral power. The provision of respite from ordinary labour is but a part of the Sabbatic arrangement — a part of it, indeed, good in its place — capable of advantage, but convertible also to evil, and then only answering its whole design, as well as serving fully its end of rest, when it is made tributary to its sacred objects. It is as a day of holy rest that it is so powerful in promoting the physical well- being and mental improvement of mankind. And it will not accomplish much for their moral benefit, if the enjoyment of its rest be not conjoined with the right use of its means of religious knowledge and worship. What the institution and observances are which are found to be connected with a high measure of morality in any case, we have already described in the preceding remarks on the arrange- ments which have been shown to be favourable to the improve- ment of the mind, and which might be proved to be equally so to that of the manners. It is necessary, in addition, merely to advert in a few words to the following characteristics of the Sabbath wherever it stands related to superior virtue among a people. The most perfect rule of ethics, according to the confessions 204 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. even of infidels, is expounded and studied on that day — a rule extending to the relations and circumstances of all mankind — uniting with this universality of reference, a wonderful concise- ness, simplicity, and clearness — unassailably self-consistent — em- bracing the regulation of every outward act, and yet preferring its chief claims to a pure heart — and inculcating love to all men, founded on a paramount love to the Supreme Being, This rule is held forth under the authority of the Divine Creator and Governor of the Universe, who has declared the penalty of its violation to be eternal death. But along with these truths, it is announced that the Lawgiver himself, in compassion to his creatures, and yet resolved that the purity of his name and government shall receive no taint, has provided in the substitution and sacrifice of a Personage, at once Divine and human, an atonement for trans- gression. It is proclaimed, also, that He is willing to receive into favour all who repent and accept reconciliation through this medium, and that those who do so shall then come under the Divine law as divested of the condemnation and terror which the breach of it had caused, and shall find a course of obedience to it accompanied by abundant help, profit, and pleasure here, and fol- lowed by perpetual honour and happiness in a nobler state of being hereafter. It is impossible to conceive considerations more powerful than these for awing and melting human hearts, and for inspiring those feelings of penitence, fear, hope, joy, love, which bear irresistible sway over the minds of men. There is the highest moral discipline in the study of such themes. But to this are added the elevating approach to the Being of infinite greatness, purity, and love — the communion of fellow-men in circumstances so fitted to beget feelings of mutual sympathy and regard — the watchful care of faithful guardians over the temporal interests and moral condition of the people on every day — and the various in- fluences of reading, reflection, example, instruction, and counsel, for which the Sabbath guarantees time and opportunity to those who hallow its sacred hours. We have to add that in connexion with such means of good there is imparted a celestial influence — the necessity of which human frailty proves, and the actual re- ceiving of which the experience of the most -s-irtuous men attests, disposing the individual to abandon the most vicious habits and to live soberly, righteously, and piously in the world. MORAL AND EELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 2Uo Where, we may ask, can there be pointed out a similar provi- sion for teaching and enforcing morality, or the laws of any society or country ? The purest ethics of Greece and Rome were pol- luted by foul admixtures ; wanted authority ; were recommended by no perfect example in gods or men ; relaxed law to accommo- date human imperfection, instead of presenting means of vindicat- ing the law by the punishment of the offence, and yet of restoring the offender to favour and purity ; and contained no provision for securing influence to prompt and strengthen virtuous endeavour. Passing over other systems liable to equally fatal objections, we find those Protestants, who claim the right to abridge the time and to lower the obligation of the Christian Sabbath, stripping it of well-nigh everything that seems to constitute its moral power. To secularize the day in any form or degree does not appear a likely means of enabling a man to shake off the dust of earth, and to nourish his mental part, his immortal spirit. Nor do the services usually attached to such a Sabbath — the devotions en- gaged in as if they were a disrehshed task, and cold prelections on virtue, with little or no reference to resources and commanding motives for its cultivation, and to the means of its acceptance above — give the best promise of moral fruit. How a Sabbath, sneeringly called puritanical, but in reality regulated, a,^ will be proved, by the law of its Author, should exert an influence on character so much more potent and salutary than that of any other scheme, it is not difiicult to perceive. Some of the principles involved in the subject have been recog- nised by persons of the greatest name in ethical science, and in practical philanthropy. Sir James Mackintosh, w^hen referring to the superior excellence of certain communities, observes, " Those who preached faith, or, in other words, a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good works, or the mere regulation of outward acts."^ The principle of faith, which, terminating on merely human testimony, is so con- trolling a power in the business of life, is, when its object is the Word of God, as much more operative as the evidence is more certain, and as the truths and facts are immensely more important. Let men believe that they are under the eye of an omniscient, 1 Memoirs, toI. i. p. 411. 206 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. almighty, pure, and benignant Intelligence, to whom they are re- sponsible for every thought as well as every action, and especially that " the same awful Being submitted to pay the forfeiture of sin in his own person," that they might not die for ever ; and must not this belief " work by love," " purify the heart," and " over- come the world," so as that it shall be powerless to terrify or seduce from the path of rectitude 'i A philosopher, even more distinguished than the one just named, has borne a still fuller testimony to our principles. It is a well-known fact, for which they have often been vilified, that the advocates of a strictly ob- served Sabbath hold at the same time the necessity, if we would lead men to happiness and virtue, of the greatest prominence being given in its instructions to the doctrine of the Atonement as the means of reconciliation with Heaven. Dr. Adam Smith had the sagacity to see the truth and importance of this doctrine. " If man," he says, " would hope for happiness, he is conscious that he cannot demand it from the justice, but that he must entreat it from the mercy of God. Repentance, sorrow, humilia- tion, contrition at the thought of his past conduct, are, upon this account, the sentiments which become him, and seem to be the only means which he has left for appeasing that wrath which, he knows, he has justly provoked. He even distrusts the efficacy of all these, and naturally fears lest the wisdom of God should not, like the weakness of man, be prevailed upon to spare the crime, by the most importunate lamentations of the criminal. Some other intercession, some other sacrifice, some other atonement, he imagines, must be made for him, beyond what he himself is capable of making, before the purity of the Divine justice can be reconciled to his manifold offences. The doctrines of revelation coincide, in every respect, with these original anticipations of nature ; and, as they teach us how little we can depend upon the imperfection of our own virtues, so they show us, at the same time, that the most powerful intercession has been made, and that the most dreadful atonement has been paid, for our manifold transgressions and iniquities."^ Anotlier characteristic of societies in which the Lord's day is 1 Theory of Moral Senfimcnts (1759), pp. 205, 206. These and some other noble sentences are omitted in la'.er edition!!. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 207 regarded with peculiar respect is a watchful care over their mem- bers. Let us hear the words of the same writer, adducing evidence for the moral benefit of the practice only the more reli- able that it plainly comes from no partisan. Referring to a per- son passing from his notoriety in a country village to the obscurity of a large town, where, unnoticed, he is very likely to abandon himself to every sort of lowest profligacy and vice, he adds, " He never emerges so effectually from this obscurity ; his conduct never excites so much the attention of any respectable society as by his be- coming the member of a small religious sect. He from that moment acquires a degree of consideration which he never had before. All his brother sectaries are, for the credit of the sect, interested to observe his conduct ; and if he gives occasion to any scandal, if he deviates very much from those austere morals, which they almost always require of one another, to punish him by what is always a very severe punishment, even where no civil eft'ects attend it — expulsion or excommunication. In little religious sects, accordingly, the morals of the common people have been almost always remarkably regular and orderly, generally much more so than in the Established Church. The morals of those little sects, indeed, have frequently been rather disagreeably rigorous and unsocial" ^ While philosophy has thus appreciated some of the principles of our subject, philanthi-opy has borrowed others of them for the reformation of society. The eflective exertions of Mrs. Fry, for the good of prisoners, proceeded on the principle that to reach the hearts of men, and to inspire them with the only morality worth the name, that which is of love and choice, you must treat them with kindness — a principle involved in the whole of Christianity ; in its law, the sum of which is love ; in its docrines, which with- out omitting to influence the fears and to secure the respect of human beings, overpower the heart by their matchless exhibitions of benevolence and mercy ; and in its institutions, not the least benignant of which is the day when man is recreated by bodily rest, and has the opportunity of coming under the discipline of a system so mighty for winning him from a wretched course of folly to the path of purity and peace. But, in fact, as art has derived 1 WtaUh of Nations, B. v. ch. i. Art. iii. 208 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. many of its finest designs from nature, so all classes have attested the excellence of religion, either by reverently and for good copy- ing its measures, or by stealing them with the \4ew of effecting different or hostile ends. Julian saw it necessary to adopt its system of preaching in support of his new faith. Its music has been imitated by those who would enliven their meetings for good or evil. Its festivals have led to the institution of days in honour of great men. Its means of circulating knowledge have been applied to the dissemination of error. And how much, to add no more, has its Sabbath been made use of by those who never cease to malign one of their chief boons ! Let us now endeavour to show that the Sabbatic institution is an indispensable means of religious good. The necessity of a weekly day of rest to the prosperity and even preservation of religion in the world has been proclaimed by the almost universal voice of mankind. Jews and Christians have ever devoted a seventh day to holy uses. Mohammedanism has always appropriated Friday to public devotion and instruction. Paganism, holding sacred in many instances the same propor- tion of time, has in no instance dropped all periodical festivals, till its people have well-nigh lost the conception of an object of worship. That so many, in regions and periods widely remote from each other, have observed a Sabbath, or some analogous arrange- ment, is a strong testimony to its religious necessity. And the re- maining members of the human family, by whom religion has been partially or altogether discarded, come in to complete the universality of the testimony. Jeroboam, king of Israel, renounces the wor- ship of Jehovah ; but finds it necessary to have sonie kind of worship, with its relative places, times, and priesthood. Julian abandons Christianity, but sees the advantage to his new religion of introducing into the temples of idolatry a system of public in- struction after the model of that of the Christian Clu^rch.^ The French, exchanging Popery for the religion of so-called Reason, must yet have their temples and decades for upholding and pro- moting their altered faith, and are soon obliged to furnish a stronger verdict on the subject by restoring their former worship 1 Prideaux's Connexion, ^c. Part i. p. 390. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 209 and institutions such as they were. And in our own country- various classes, who have rejected the authority of the Sabbath, have, notwithstanding, justified the appointment to the extent of appropriating the day to meetings for the advancement of their pecuKar opinions. By approving of the Sabbath abstractly con- sidered, and lauding it in this view as an admirable provision for rest, recreation, and mental culture, these classes unwittingly pro- nounce a judgment in favour of the religious institution, for they never saw or heard of a holy day entitled to such praise but the one which religion originated and has maintained. There is yet another way in which the wise are taken in their own craftiness, and, contrary to their intention, made to confess the religious power of the holy Sabbath. Whence the desire and attempt to destroy the day as a day of sacred rest and service ? Whence but that in this character it is an adjunct and indispensable help to reli- gion. The French were aware that, most summarily and effectu- ally to put down religion, they must remove its weekly holy day. Despotic rulers have known well that to break down the Sabbath is to crush the spirit and the liberty which religious instruction and worship inspire. And when infidelity would liberate itself from the restraints of Christianity, it labours to reduce the Lord's day to the continental standard, convinced that a day devoted en- tirely to rest and piety is the chief barrier to the compassing of its designs. Conclusive in favour of our position though evidence so ample and varied is, the necessity of a Sabbath to the prosperity and even existence of religion is a doctrine which derives even stronger support from the nature of religion itself, considered as a creed to be understood and believed, a ritual to be observed, and a rule of moral conduct to be obeyed. First, Religion must have some time for its consideration and practice. This is surely a self-evident truth. Second, Religion must have times free to be applied to its busi- ness. This proposition is scarcely less obviously true than the preceding. " The heathen men by the light of nature have seen that everything is then best ordered when it hath but one ofiice — that is, whatsoever is done, it must be thoroughly done, it must be alonely done. The reason is, we are finite creatures ; and if o 210 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. two tilings be done at once, one part of our thoughts will be taken from the other : we cannot wholly intend two things at once." ^ Third, Religion must have fixed times for its teachings and worship. In the ordinary aftairs of life, should the time of any matter be left indefinite, there would be no provision for its being attended to at all. If without some peremptory arrangement, many tilings that are agreeable to us would be forgotten, what would be the fate of those to which we are disinclined or averse ? How constantly would the excuse be made, " Go thy w'ay for this time ; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee ;" and how constantly would the convenient season fail to come ! It is of importance, therefore, that times for the duties of religion should be determined. If they had not their understood days and hours, certain religious services could not be performed at all. Public worship is a becoming as well as prescribed homage to the Great King, It is a means of receiving blessings from heaven. It elevates, purifies, and gladdens human hearts. It is a proclamation of great truths to the world. It is a commemora- tion of great facts. But it must have its set times. The time and place are co-relative. If there were no common time there could be no appointed place. " Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary, I am the Lord," was an order once given from the court above. It was perfectly in keeping that when an atheistical people abrogated the day, they should proceed forth- with to desecrate the temples of religion. We have in the preceding chapter adverted to the wisdom and power of the provision whereby the preacher applies the fruits of study to general advantage, and one hving voice can reach the ears, and thrill the hearts of many. But without fixed times that voice could not be heard — those fruits could not be distributed — there could, in fact, be no public instruction. Family religion is right and good. But we believe that there would be no such thing without a Sabbath. Such is the state of society, that this is the only day on which some are disposed, and others have it in their power, to engage in family prayer. Take away the Sabbath, and while one class would be without the im- pulse which the regularly returning sacred day gives to domestic 1 The Moral Law lixjtounded, by Bishop Andrewts (1642), p. 328. MOEAL AND EELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 211 piety, the greater number would be in the situation of the omni- bus men in London, who, never seeing their children except when these are in bed, can have neither the inclination nor opportunity to worship with or instruct their families. Religion consists greatly in the discharge of beneficent offices beyond the circle of home. But take away the Sabbath, and you absolutely preclude to tens of thousands the advantage and plea- sure of doing, and to many more the profit of receiving, this species of good. ^^ Personal religion is " the one thing needful." But its attain- ments and duties are next to impracticable without a Sabbath. How without this institution would men oppressed with toil, and allured by temptations to drown their cares in sleep or intoxica- tion, feel any disposition for communing with their own hearts, with their Creator, or with a future world ? Is it not true that many do not call on the Almighty, or study the truths and facts of Christianit}', because, keeping no holy day, they are continually immersed in business or in worldly pleasure 1 It is sad to think that those who might redeem one day in seven for attending to the claims of God, of their souls, and of a future existence, do not avail themselves of the opportunity. How much more melancholy were this, from the want of a Sabbath, the inevitable condition of all ! The thought will intrude amidst the most incessant occupa- tions and bustle of life. For what purpose all this labour '\ For what end these cares, or these gratifications ? Whither am I bound 1 Where shall I be when a few years have passed away '\ Is it worthy of my nature to be ever looking down to this earth, or engrossed with the present 1 These thoughts do occur, and it is irrational to seek oblivion of them in mirth, or to dispel them by courting a different train of reflection. If the impulses of nature suggest repose, the dictates of conscience demand the trial of some means of genuine relief to remorse and apprehension. It is not enough to have the season of night for a pause in the perpetual iteration of engagements, for that, requiring physical rest, admits of little speculation. There must be a Sabbath, unless one class are to be for ever bound to the chariot-wheel of labour, and another so continually whMed in the vortex of plea- sure, as to render it no less easy for a cam^3l to go through the eye 212 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. of a needle than for the sons of men to enter into the kingdom of God. Fourth^ The time must regularly and frequently recur ; in short, must be one day in seven. No subject can be properly studied, no art acquired, if application to them be interrupted during long intervals. Interest is impaired ; lessons are for- gotten ; habits cannot be formed ; and, after losing time and labour, the professed learner has in the end accomplished nothing. The question then is, What is the necessary frequency of time for religion — the time, that is, which its more deliberate study, and its more public exercises, statedly require % We answer, the greatest frequency compatible with the secular and spiritual inter- ests of mankind — in other words, one whole day in every seven. This arrangement being, as we have seen, most adapted to the physical, mental, and moral nature of man, must be most conson- ant, also, to his religious character — determining the proportion of holy time which is most conducive to his temporal advantage, and which thereby enables him to bring the greatest amount of health, energy, leisure, and comfort to bear on his sacred studies and business. It follows from the preceding statements in this chapter that religion and morality will flourish, fade, or die, according as a weekly holy day is observed, perverted, or lost. And if we show that such is, in point of fact, the relation of religious and moral character to the institution, the truth of our thesis is established. Let it be remarked, then, that where the Sabbath is duly honoured and observed, religion and morality prosper. The facts that prove this position are too numerous to be particularized. They are to be found in the history of the early Christians ; of the Waldenses ; of the Puritans in England and America ; of the Covenanters and Seceders in Scotland ; of the evangelical parties in the English and Scottish Church Establishments, and of the converts to Protestant Christianity in heathen lands. In all those cases, without exception, a vigorous, purifying, elevating Chris- tian influence has been exerted in connexion with a devout, sacred respect for the Lord's day. Let it be observed, further, that in proportion to the perversion of the institution religion and morals decline. Hogarth, like him- MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 213 self, is true to nature, when he begins his Rake's Progress, which ends at the gallows, with the apprentice playing at marbles upon a tomb-stone during Divine service. The downward movement in religious creed and character has substantially the same commence- ment. This is the acknowledgment of almost all criminals. It is the experience of many others not yet criminals in the eye of human law — the victims of a state of society which they cannot control, and which, unnecessarily and wickedly excluding them from places of Avorship, soon extinguishes the impressions of an early religious education. And good men confirm these testi- monies to the danger of tampering with a benignant yet holy institute. " I have long found it a most important and beneficial rule," says Bickersteth, " to give the Sabbath to God as entirely as possible, and especially to spend at least an hour or two alone. I am sure, humanly speaking, all religion would soon be gone from me, if I did not adopt this plan."^ The corruption of churches begins and proceeds in the same way. It might be shown that nothing has had more influence in debasing the Church of Rome than the holidays, feasts, and ceremonies, by which one after another of the associated observances, and simple benevolent provisions of the Lord's day have been supplanted and neutralized. If that one institution had been preserved in its integrity, and unique authority as a sacred day, and maintained in its proper accessories of a pure worship, a preached gospel, and a free Bible, it would have been impossible to uphold, if not to introduce, the domination of the priesthood, the idolatrous worship of the Virgin and of the mass, the abominations of celibacy and the confessional, the manifold enormities, in short, by which that Church has made religion an object of contempt and disgust, and filled the greater part of Europe with ignorance, poverty, and crime. The infidelity and other evils, which have so laid waste the Protestant churches on the Continent, have a close connexion with wrong views and practices in reference to the Sabbath. The Reformed and Lutheran Churches, particularly the former, were at first careful to maintain the celebration of the day, but the example of Romanists and infidels around led to a gradual departure from this practice, which was abetted by certain unguarded expressions of the 1 Memoir of Rev. E. Bickersteth, vol. i. p. 224. 214 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. Reformers tending to lower the claims of the institution. " The evil once begun," says Fairbairn, "proceeded rapidly from bad to worse, till it scarcely left in many places so much as the form of religion."^ The history of religion in England is rife Avith ex- amples of similar unha]3py eifects of a disregarded or maltreated Sabbath. From the Reformation downwards to the present time there have been two ecclesiastical parties, which have been dis- tinguished by their different views and treatment of the Lord's day, and which have in consequence displayed an equal diversity in religious character and influence. They might be compared to two rivers — one foul, fierce, and desolating as the Aar ; the other, " a pure river of water of life, having on either side the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations." For a time the one or the other may almost disappear, or their waters par- tially intermingle, but in general they flow on in separate and parallel currents. The Puritans within and without the Church of England have been at once the warm friends of the Sabbath, tlie most decided Christians, and the best members of society. In Scotland, too, the periods distinguished by the profanation of the Lord's day have been jDrecisely the periods in which the inter- ests of religion and morality have sustained the greatest damage, and the abettors of the profanation have ever been identical with the imgodly and immoral. Let it be observed, once more, that where no Sabbath is known, there is no religion or virtue at all. The following facts are suf- ficient to confirm the statement. The great majority of 100,000 men employed on the inland navigation of England are deprived of the blessings of the Lord's day, and are consequently, with their wives and children, generally speaking, in a state of deplorable ignorance of the gospel and of the power of religion. ^ Baron Gurney, when passing sentence of death on two boatmen at the Stafford assizes, said, " There is no body of men so destitute of all moral culture as boatmen ; they know no Sabbath, and are possessed of no means of religious instruction."^ It has been said that no class of men are more frequently before the magis- trates than the London cab and omnibus drivers, who are employed 1 Ti/polopi/, vol. ii. p. 4*5. - Bailee's Facts and Staliatia, p. 65. ^ Ibid. p. G4. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 215 every day from thirteen to sixteen hours in their calling. Habits of intoxication and profane swearing prevail to a great extent amongst both classes ; and the same characteristic attaches to them as to others who are deprived of the privileges of the Lord's (lay, namely, demoralization and degradation.^ Mr. Edge, of Man- chester, observes, respecting the London bakers, that " the low mental and moral condition of the trade generally in London at the present time is notorious." ^ Mr. Henry Ellis, a master baker, says of them, " Those good and moral impressions which they first received in their early days are entirely lost, from the continual practice of working on the Sabbath day."^ The city and metropolitan police, numbering 5000, although guardians of the public peace, as a body live almost without regard to religion, or thought of another world.'* In four years, 1849-1852, 54 of that body were convicted of offences, 970 were dismissed, and 524 were suspended ; 2495 were fined, 64 were reduced in rank, 3151 resigned. The value of the property stolen during that period was £153,942, of which £34,032 was recovered.^ The want of a day of rest and moral training is found to corrupt a (;lass, who from their circumstances in life might be expected to rise superior to deeds of villany. We refer to servants in our post offices, who number 14,000, and labour in many instances from six to ten or even twelve hours on the Sabbath. It is stated in a Report of 1843 by a Committee of the House of Commons, that, from January 5, 1837, to January 5, 1842, the immense sum of £322,033, contained in letters, was lost in passing through the post-office. Whatsoever, therefore, impairs the authority of a sacred resting day tends to quench virtuous feeling, and to obliterate from the world the truths, laws, and blessings of religion. In referring to the public teaching of Christianity on the Sabbath, Dean Prideaux remarks, that "It is not to be doubted but that if this method were once dropped among us, the generality of the people, whatever else might be done to obviate it, would in seven years relapse into as bad a 1 Baylee's Fads and Staiutics, p. S4. 2 Qaoted in Address an the. Evils of Sabbath Labour, p. 11. 3 Evidence before the House of Common's Committee in 1S32, p. 1J9. * London Oily Mission Report (1815), p. 21. ^ Chrislian Times (185 ), p. 379. 216 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. state of barbarity as was ever in practice among the worst of our Saxon or Danish ancestors." ^ If along with the pulpit the Sabbath itself were set aside, we should require to take a worse state of society than that to represent the woful result. / The weekly day of rest and worship may in some imperfect form survive the ex- tinction of Christianity, but Christianity has never existed without its Sabbath. Let this be lost to our country or to any land, dnd the religion which employs it for its own preservation and advancement must, with all the blessings of the highest civilisa- tion, disappear along with it. \ And it is lamentable to reflect that so many of the inhabitants of Great Britain are employed in strenuous endeavours to pull down that fabric of religion, morality, and social happiness, which by means of the Sabbath has been reared and consolidated in these lands, and which has for centuries been no less the envy and admiration of the world than the bless- ing and glory of our people. 1 Old and New Testament Connected, . 2T5. 6 Permanent Sabbath Documents, No. I. pp. ?,Z, 34. ECONOMICAL BEARINGS. 219 the change had been adopted, stated to a committee of the House of Lords, " We have made rather more iron since ^^e stopped on Sundays than we did before." After a seven years' trial of the plan, Mr. Bagnall wrote thus, " We have made a larger quantity of iron than ever, and gone on in all our six iron- works much more free from accidents and interruptions than during any preceding seven years of our lives. "^ Such facts as these prepare us for crediting a statement which has been made, that the amount of productive labour in France was diminished by the change from a seventh to a ten day's rest,^ and for rejecting the policy of Ark- wright and others, which, in the spirit of the Egyptian task- masters, and of slavery wherever found, and blind no less to the ]naterial than to all the higher interests of society, would cancel the Sabbath as if it were a day of idleness and loss, and con- demn the great majority of mankind to one monotonous course of grinding toil. The arrangement which thus secures to the workmen every seventh day for rest and mental profit without any pecuniary loss, and to the employer a larger return for his capital, has this other great advantage to both, that it favourably affects the quality of labour. Work, in the circumstances which the want of a weekly day of rest supposes, must be carelessly and improperly performed. It is observed that at the close of a day's employment the men become less efficient, and the work is more imperfect. A falling off in excellence, as the consequence of exhaustion, has been noticed also in literary performances. When labour is continued over the Sabbath, the spirits and strength flag. A steamer on the Thames having blown up some years ago, the foreman and stokers laid the blame on Sabbath work, which " stupified and embittered them, made them blunder, and heedless what havoc they might occasion." Mr. Swan, the intelligent superintendent of machinery to the Eastern and Continental Steam Packet Company, states that when the engines were getting con- stantly damaged, the mischief was instantly repaired by giving the men the rest of each seventh day.*^ It is thus evident that we 1 Baylee's Statistics, pp. 88, 89. 2 Spring's Obligations of the World to the Bihk (Collin^), p. 215. 5 Memorial to the Chairman of the CoiKpany. 220 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. canuot -siolate the laws of our constitution without doing injury to ourselves and to society. But, on the other hand, since in all labour there is profit, it is not difficult to see that the observance of the Sabbath, which, by its influence on the physical frame, enables labourers, with less rather than greater effort, to do better as well as more work than they could otherwise perform, must contribute largely to the increase of individual comfort and of the national wealth. One important item in the gains of such labourers is the saving eftected by them in many instances of the expenditure which the feebleness and disease of the overtasked and the imrested infallibly entail. A similar profitable result to that produced by the sanitary power of the institution might be expected from its ascertained tendency to promote intellectual improvement. " Knowledge is power," says Bacon ; " wisdom is better than strength," says the wiser Solomon. It is the mechanic of superior intelligence who may be expected to obtain the most remunerative employment, and it is the men of highest acquirements who enjoy the best means of advancement in the learned professions. We have yet to mention the economic benefit of the Sabbath through means of the moral and religious character which it does so much to form. The hand of the diligent maketh rich, while sobriety and care husband the gains of industry. Idleness, on the other hand, clothes a man with rags ; and vice, the most unpro- ductive of all labour, speedily scatters the fortune of the rich and the pittance of the poor. Nothing, however, secures a high and abiding morality but religion, and nothing is more necessary to the preservation and influence of religion than its weekly holy day. How much, to say no more, must the lessons of wisdom and the habits of order, that are learnt on that day, help to guide in the use of all time, and in the performance of every work ! "I know from experience that persons who are in the habit of attending a place of worship are more careful in their pecuniary transactions, they are more careful in their language, they are more economical in their arrangements at home, they are more affectionate and humane, and in every respect superior beiags by far than persons of contraiy habits. Those who neglect a place of worship gene- rally become idle, neglectful of their person, filthy in their habits. ECONOMICAL BEARINGS. 221 careless as to their children, and equally careless in their pecuniary transactions."^ The want of the Sabbath in France prevented regular industiy during the week ; and employers in this country inform us that their servants who attend at a place of worship are, generally speaking, honest and diligent men, " never losing an hour of their time," and that " they are very glad to get hold of such men ;" but that morality is obliterated by Sabbath labour, and that they have been compelled to discontinue such labour in consequence of the state of the men, who, from their not having proper instruction, could not be trusted with anything.- Inces- sant toil of itself demoralizes its victims. The overtasked resort to stimulants, and the delays, interruptions, waste, and injury occasioned by intemperate habits, must involve immense loss in various ways to the employers, to the employed, and to society at large. And how can men subjected to undue labour be supposed to care for the interests of their masters, and to rise above the temptations to wTong in many forms those whom they are apt to regard as treating them with severity and injustice 1 But give these men their weekly resting day at least, and you remove some strong inducements to improper indulgences, to unfaithfulness, and to dishonesty. Let them be tauglit to respect and observe the Sabbath, and much more will be accomplished than the withdrawal of the occasions of vice and crime. They will become intelligent and virtuous, skilful, industrious, and eti&cient, temperate and eco- nomical ; and in all these ways they will promote their own inte- rest, benefit their employers, and add largely to the general amount of wealth. On such grounds as these we are prepared to expect that a country will prosper, and individuals be well-to-do, or the reverse, according as they enjoy or want the enriching influence of a weekly holy day. Nor are we disappointed. The Popish cantons of Switzerland, with their numerous festi- vals, are poor and depressed compared with the Protestant cantons. Italy is a poor country, swarming with beggars as with worse than useless priests. In Rome, every third man is a pauper. In N'aples, out of a population of 380,000, there were lately 220,000 with- 1 Evidence of Mr. J. S. Thomas, Superintendent of Police, in Report on the Sabbath, p. 89. 2 jiid, pp. 46, 104, 12C, 160. 222 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. out any fixed employment. In Spain, 3000 needy relations and dependants are maintained on the estates of the Duke of Arcos. Need we mention Ireland, where, so far as they are Roman Catho- lics, the people are as destitute of the comforts of life as they are of a hallowed day. Not long before the commencement of the late fiimine, " two-thirds of the population subsisted on potatoes, nearly one-third were out of work and in distress thirty weeks in the year, and one-eighth were paupers or on the verge of pauper- ism. The merchant was poorer than the English clerk ; the farmer would have been thankful for the food which servants in England threw away."^ Mayo, the most Popish, is also the poorest county in Ireland. How different from Italy, Spain, and Ireland are those communities which, seeking at the Divine com- mand spiritual riches for fifty-tAvo days in the year, have the "•other things added thereto," in a wealth largely accumulated in particular instances, and widely diffused among the population. We see one example in the United States. And we have another in Great Britain, where the periods of most earnest attention to Christian institutions have been the seasons of general prosperity, and where the chief drawback to social comfort is to be found in the pauperism, losses, and public burdens, which are obviously, and according to their own frequent confession, caused by men — many of them not natives — who keep no sacred Sabbath. Let us now turn to the component parts of a community in which the Sabbatic institution is known. The inhabitants of Great Britain may be divided into those who more or less respect the institution, and those who utterly disregard it. We need not say to which of these classes the greater proportion of general worth and comfort belongs. When we view them again, as ar- ranged under the higher, the middle, and the lower orders of society, and attend to their comparative regard for the Sabbath, we find that the intermediate are the most distinguished at once by their observance of the day, and by their prosperity. If we contemplate the population of our land according to their employ- ments, we discover that those who to the greatest extent trespass in their callings against the law of a weekly day of rest and worship are the least prosperous. " There is no trade that we are aware of 1 DiU's Ireland's Miseries, p. 11. ECONOMICAL BEARINGS. 223 that violates the Sabbath hiw by hibour so much as the bakers do, and no trade has suffered so much in consequence. A rich master baker, who has got his wealtli by the profits of his business, is a rare thing to be met with. There are more journeymen in the baking trade who are decayed masters than in any other." ^ If we compare persons in the same profession or trade, whether in America or in Engknd, the result will not be different, " A distinguished mer- chant said to the writer of this — ' There is no need of breaking the Sabbath, and no benefit from it. We have not had a vessel leave the harbour on the Sabbath for more than twenty years. It is alto- gether better to get them off on a week-day than on the Sabbath. It is about thirty years since I came to this city ; and every man through this whole range, who came down to his store, or suffered his counting-room to be opened on the Sabbath, lias lost his pro- perty.' " " An old gentleman in Boston remarked, ' Men do not gain anything by working on the Sabbath. I can recollect men, who, when I was a boy, used to load their vessels down on Long Wharf, and keep their men at work from morning to night on the Sabbath day. But they have come to nothing. Their children have come to nothing. Depend upon it, men do not gain anything in the end by working on the Sabbath.'"- " Do you conceive serving on a Sunday is injurious to the pecuniary interests 'l — I see it by most tradesmen round, that those who shut their shops on the Sunday are the peojile that do the best." -^ In the case of working men the influence of the Sabbatic rest and duties, or the want of it, appears with like certainty. When it Avas stated before the Commons' Sabbath Committee in 1832, that certain characters, on being induced to respect the institution, began to procure for themselves better food, and to refuse aid from the poor-rates, the fact was not a rare one. There is not a Christian missionary employed in instructing the neglected in- habitants of our towns who cannot relate many instances of the iinproved funds, diet, and dress, that very speedily attend the resumption of religious observances, while it almost as invariably happens, that when the claims of public worship and of sacred 1 Address on the Evils of Sabbath Labour, p. 11. '^ Permanent Sabbath Documents, No. I. pp. 62, 55. 3 Jieport on the Sabbath, p. 50. 224 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. time cease to be regarded, there commences a process of deteriora- tion alike in character and in condition. Many such facts might be presented, but we must limit ourselves to two other cases be- longing to very different periods. It is recorded by Calderwood that in the congregation of Mr. David Black, St. Andrews, which numbered 3000 communicants, there was not a single beggar or Sabbath-breaker.^ " There is not," says a working man, " a neigh- bourhood, village, or township, that is notable for its profanation of the sacred day of rest, but is proverbial for its poverty and its crime. The writer is acquainted with one within his own imme- diate neighbourhood, where all the people make it a i^ractice to bake their bread upon the Sabbath day for the sake of ' saving time ;' but it is questionable whether there is another village in England where the labouring classes have got so little bread to bake. Many have been transported and imprisoned within the last few years from this ' dii'ty poaching ' village for the crimes of arson and other felonies." ^ Simply, then, as a commercial or pecuniary matter, it is for the advantage of individuals and communities to observe a weekly day of rest. Let us again listen to the eloquent Macaulay : " Rely on it that intense labour, beginning too early in life, continued too long every day, stunting the growth of the body, stunting the growth of the mind, leaving no time for healthful exercise, leaving no time for intellectual culture, must impair all those high quali- ties which have made our country great. ... On the other hand, a day of rest recurring in every week, two or three hours of leisure, exercise, innocent amusement, or useful study, recurring every day, must improve the whole man physically, morally, intellectually ; and the improvement of the man will improve all that the man produces." ^ 1 Altar. Damasc. Ep. Phil. Vlndic. p. G5. 2 Prize Essays by Five If'orking Men, p. 160. 3 SpeccJics, p. 451. CONNEXION WITH PEESONAL PRCSPERITY. 225 CHAPTER y. INFLUENCE OF THE SABBATH ON THE EESPECTABILITY AND HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. " They who always labour can have no true judgment ; they exhauit their attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.' — Bdrke. Our attention has been occuijied with the evidence which appears to demonstrate the peculiarly beneficial bearings of the Sabbatic institution on the interests of health, wealth, intelligence, morality, and religion. The testimony, however, of reason and experience to the practical value of the institution would be incomplete with- out some consideration of still further results which by means of those interests, and otherwise, it is fitted to secure — residts in per- sonal, domestic, and national good. On the benefits that accrue to individuals let two remarks suffice. First, The Sabbatic institution is a means of elevating them to true respectability and honour. Every deduction from physical evil, every accession to mental improvement, and especially every advance in piety and virtue — attainments, as has been shown, all dependent in a great measure on the Sabbath — are so many contributions to respectability of character and condition. A man to be in his j^roper position must be free. It is cer- tainly unworthy of their nature that human beings should be in the situation of the slaves of Cuba or the Carolinas, of the serfs in Russia, of " the puppets of the Pope," or of the men and women in this country who are doomed to excessive toil. But degraded above all is the man who, considering himself free, is the victim of his guilt and passions, of his prejudices and errors, of his fears and follies. Such a state of things is the source of all slavery. What but sin has ever made one class of men tyrants, p 226 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. and another, bondsmen ? All attempts at human aggrandizement must fail where sin continues to condemn and rule hnman beings. Without peace with Heaven, and a heart that loves God and man, not only will a moral vassalage i-emain which no form of civil free- dom can countervail, but its bitter fruits in abject dependence of all kinds will continually be reaped. And what has ever been found capable of giving liberty to such captives but the good tid- ings of Revelation ? " He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside ; .... he has wings, that neither sickness, pain. Nor pemirj, can cripple or confine. No nook so narrow but he spreads them there With ease, and is at large." And what more than the Christian Sabbath is tributary to the knowledge and influence of the expanding, emancipating truth J This institution is an essential means of removing the cause of all bondage, and of thereby destroying or preventing the effects. In its absence or neglect there is no security against the power of one class, and the depression of another. How manifest is it from the principles and facts set forth in previous chapters, that if all pos- sessed and rightly used the weekly holy day, neither the oppressor nor the oppressed could exist in any part of the earth ! It is only when men want, or, like the Jews, despise the Sabbath, that they can be made captives, or at least so crushed as that the spirit of liberty shall not survive and struggle till it win for itself a com- plete deliverance. It is the men in our own land who have no regard for the institution that subject their brethren to the degra- dation of perpetual labour, and it is the workmen who despise their birthright that can be so degraded. The employer who values, cannot but allow his servants to enjoy, the rest of every seventh day, as he respects its authorit}', knows its advantages to himself, and has learned by its means to honour all men, and to do to them as he would be done by ; and the labourer or me- chanic who breathes the spirit and relishes the repose of the sacred season, who has been taught by its lessons to economize his earnings and respect himself, will be prepared to negotiate from a higher platform with the dispenser of work and wages. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPEEIT^T. 227 Whatever promotes efficiency iu the business of life contributes to respectability and honour. But he who obeys what he holds to be a Divine law will be dutiful to men ; and he who has been physically refreshed by the rest, and morally braced by the instructions of the Sabbath, will proceed to the work of the week, rejoicino; " as a strong man to run a race." The influences which operate so favourably from vv(!ek to week on his whole nature and condition impart, as the united result, energy to his character and proceedings. Some of the most remarkable men have been thus formed, as, for example. Sir Isaac IsTewton, who said that if in anything he excelled others it was by virtue of his power of appli- cation, which', we know, was invigorated by the hebdomadal rest and worship ; and Howard, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Chalmers, and Buxton, none of whom allowed anything to bend him from the great purpose of his life and soul, and all of whom highly valued the Lord's day. The early Christians, the Reformers, the Puri- tans, and the Covenanters sanctified the Sabbath, and they were the most resolute of men. And what but the collective might of many individuals, nurtured by the same institution, has imparted an activity, enterprise, and determination, beyond all modern nations, to Britons and Americans, whose energy may be read in reclaimed wastes, in extending commerce and civilisation, in national wealth and comfort, in the cultivation of science and letters, and even in the prowess of the battle-field 1 The man who is the object of respect and confidence among his fellows has attained true elevation and fame. Need a word be said to show that the infidel, the irreligious, and the immoral inspire no such feelings in their own or any other class of minds ? Voltaire, who must be allowed to have been free from temptation to traduce his own creed, confessed that he avoided the utterance of infidel sentiments in the presence of his servants, lest, adopting and acting on them, " they should cut his throat." No less well known and generally believed is the trust-worthiness of Christian men of all ranks who are observant of their own religious insti- tutions. Nothing more ennobles a human being than the combined dis- position and power to be useful — to be one of the world's bene- factors. Every one who " labours, working with his hands the 228 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth," and every person of substance and influence who em- ploys them for good, occupy stations which the general voice pro- nounces to be honourable. And these " posts of honour " are usually filled by the men who are distinguished by their religious observances. It might be expected to be so. The lessons of benevolence, of brotherhood, of economy, of obligation and re- sponsibility, of which others do not avail themselves, are from week to week set before them, pressed on their attention, studied and wrought into their minds ; and the convocations of the sacred day, which others abjure, bring them into stated impressive inter- course with their neighbours and families, give them a deeper interest in both, allay prejudices and animosities, and continually remind them of the circumstances and claims of those whom but for such associations they would but slightly regard, or entirely forget. These lessons and associations, in creating a desire of use- fulness, contribute at the same time to a mental and moral cha- racter which is necessary to give one power over others. " The writer has seen a town and neighbourhood kept in peace and good order at a time of high political ferment by the influence and mutual co-operation of some half-dozen poor men, who observed and kept holy the Sabbath." ^ If it were not for a day of dis- engagement from ordinary labour, millions would be precluded not only the means of having a spirit of benevolence formed and cherished, but every opportunity for its exercise in tlieir own families and among their neighbours. Let the Sabbath cease, and even in one department of education the injury would be vast and irreparable. As the greater proportion of 250,000 Sunday-school teachers subsist by daily labour, their self-imin'oving and self- elevating instructions would be no longer possible, multitudes of children would be destitute of their sole means of education, and it could not in future be true, that " thousands of the working classes, now moving in a respectable sphere of life, owe their posi- tion in society to their attendance at a Sabbath-school." - Thus it is that the great ordinance of the Sabbath raises a man to his proper place in society. How peacefully, righteously, and surely does it accomplish the object ! No violence, disturbance, or 1 Frizz Essays by Five Working Men, p. 142. 2 jud. p. 87. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PEOSPERITY. 229 failure attends the application of tliis mighty lever. It is " the cheap " elevator of individuals as of " nations." Of all other schemes for advancing a person to respectability and honour it may be said that they are either unrighteous, or, without this one, in- competent. Secular education may do much, but mainly as the handmaid of moral principle. The economy and industry which are not guided by benevolence and wisdom, will either fail to secure wealth, or amass it to the hurt of its owner. There are many who attempt to raise themselves by illegitimate means, but they cannot, as they ought not to succeed. Such are our gamblers of various classes ; our professional men who deviate from their line, and make haste to be rich by foolish speculations ; our fraudulent tradesmen, and those working men who squander their earnings on their appetites, subject themselves to continual toil, or attempt to force the price of labour. The disappointments and woes that have ever followed such measures are incalculable. Among the working classes how disastrous, for example, has been the last- named expedient ! The strike of the Glasgow cotton- spinners in 1837, when, besides other unjust proceedings, they appointed " a persecuting committee, to persecute to the utmost " their recusant brethren, lasted for seventeen weeks and five days, and ended in their " giving in,'' not, however, without involving unspeakable hardships to many families, a fearful increase of immorality, crime, and disease, and a useless expense of £194,540. Similar were the termination and effects of the Preston strikes of 1836 and 1854 (the latter causing a total loss to the community of £533,250) ; of that among the Lanarkshire colliers in 1837, and of others too numerous to be specified. Let us attend to the wise words of a working man, whose remarks might well be pondered by persons of every rank : " We have listened to every nostrum, and tried every scheme that has been propounded by every demagogue, and set forth by every scribe ; we have wit- nessed great changes in the State ; we have seen the House of Commons reformed ; the fiscal code revised, and restrictive laws repealed ; we have expected much from all and from each of these great changes and many others. But our hopes have not been realized. The social condition of the working classes is still de- plorable. . . . There are no evils to which we are subjected but the 230 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. blessed God has provided a remedy. That remedy is the universal obedience to his laws, one of the most emphatic of which is, ' Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' " ^ Second, The Sabbath is eminently conducive to personal happi- ness. The reverse has been maintained by those who are ignorant of the true nature of the institution, and prejudiced or inadvertent in regard to the condition of its friends. But what is there in the institution to make its friends unhappy 1 Ministering to repose and health, elevating the mind by connecting it periodi- cally with the grandest subjects of thought, purifying the moral feelings and taste, fostering pious sentiments and emotions, affording opportunities of beneficence, promoting personal pros- perity, and cherishing the domestic intercourse and virtues, the Sabbath, so far from being the cause of any unhappiness, appears to include in itself all the elements of the highest enjoyment. When we consider the pursuits of those who contemn the day of sacred rest, we shall perhaps discover another reason for con- cluding that their opinions on this subject must be erroneous. They seek after secular knowledge, health, pleasure, fame, and wealth, respectively, without a prim.ary regard to what will " minister to a mind diseased," or satisfy the cravings for an in- finite and enduring good. How is it possible that any human being can be happy without the possession of blessings that will never be exhausted, and never be taken aAvay ? He who attends to the votaries of such pursuits as are circumscribed in extent, and limited by time, or who has reflected on his own feelings in fol- lowing the same course, must perceive that the pleasure enjoyed has a sting, is feverish, and demands for its maintenance constant excitement, and the oblivion of certain objects and questions that have not been duly considered. It in fiict proceeds on a great de- lusion. It cannot stand adversity. It withers under the look of death. Its possessor is fain to banish recollections and forebodings by bustle, movement, company, sleep, inebriety, and not rarely by suicide. This, however, is the pleasure generally of the men who neglect or trample upon sacred institutions. That they should con- ceive the Sabbath to be a gloomy appointment, and its friends to be unhappy, is not wonderful. They have formed their views of plea- 1 Prize Essays hy Five Worhlng Men, pp. 130, 1:31. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPERITY. 231 sure by the low standard of their own desires, appetites, and tastes, and according to a common deception in moral optics, transferred to others the misery which exists only in their own spirits. We are not, however, left to principles and reasonings as the sole means of deciding whether the institution be conducive or not to personal happiness. The tree is known by its fruits. So happy, according to all our observation, are the majority of our acquaintance and friends who keep the Sabbath, that we are dis- posed to impute the very few exceptions either to disease or to a want of religion. And the observation is in harmony with the history of the class, ancient and modern. Unhappiness is the exceptional case, which ought not to be considered as the exponent of Sabbatic tendencies. No class were happier beings than the early Christians, and their Sabbath was their most joyful day. Asceticism was of Pagan origin,^ and gained ground among Chris- tians in proportion as their doctrines and institutions were cor- rupted by foreign admixtures. The Reformers were not gloomy men ; nor were the Puritans as a body, although they have been so maligned. They received treatment at one time enough to drive less resolute spirits to distraction, and at another they had an Augean task to perform requiring stern severity. But we ven- ture to aifirm that, where that assumed its harshest features, it was among the pretended friends of the new dynasty, who bounded so suddenly to the opposite extreme of licentiousness at the Resto- ration. We may estimate the character of the Puritans with con- siderable accuracy from that of their leading men. The following is the account given of Owen : — " He was very affable and cour- teous, familiar and sociable ; the meanest persons found easy access to his conversation and friendship. He was facetious and pleasant in his common discourse, but with sobriety and measure. He was of a serene and even temper, neither elated with honour, credit, friends, or estate, and not easily depressed with troubles and difficulties." 2 What superiority to the depressing influence of adversity must he have attained who could compose his noblest and most laborious works amidst the turbulent elements of the Commonwealth, when concealing himself for safety, or when racked 1 Neander's Church History, vol. i. p. 375. 2 jjfg of Owen, by Orrae, pp. 349, 350. 23:2 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. with the stone ! i Rogers thus describes Howe — " He had nothing either of the anchorite or ascetic in his composition ; dignified but not austere, he was grave without moroseness, and cheerful with- out levity." 2 "The benevolence of Charnock," says Calamy, " was universal, and his love took in whatever person or thing had anything lovely in it."^ Who can doubt that Char- nock must have been a happy man 1 It is mentioned by the same writer that Bates's "wit was never vain or light, but most facetious and pleasant."'* Of Gouge, who went about continually doing good, Baxter said, " He never saw him sad, but cheerful."^ It was the remark of a heathen philosopher, that no man could be called happy before death. The biographies of many of the Puritans record their blessedness not only during life, but in the immediate prospect of dissolution. Among Baxter's last words were these — " I bless God I have a well-grounded assurance of my eternal happiness, and great peace and comfort within." " Almost well." These were some of the most noted of the Puritans at the time to which the charge in question has been chiefly applied. Many more of the same class of men who lived then and previously might be cited in proof that their religion did not " make their pleasures less." Their friends, who emigrated to America at dif- ferent times, were persons of the same pious and cheerful spirit. Such also were the descendants of these expatriated Puritans. After remarking the sobriety, the industry, the suppression of crime, the total absence of beggary, the general diffusion of edu- cation, and the patriotic spirit, which distinguished New England towards the close of the seventeenth century, Grahame observes — " Yet this state of society was by no means inconsistent either with refinement of manners, or with innocent hilarity. Lord Bellamont was agreeably surprised with the graceful and courtly demeanour of the gentlemen and clergy of Connecticut, and con- fessed that he found the aspect and address tliat were thought peculiar to nobility, in a land where this aristocratical distinction was unknown. From iDunston's account of his residence in Boston in 1686, it appears that the inhabitants of Massachusetts were at 1 Life of Owen, p. 352. - Life of John Howe, by Henry Rogers, pp. 494, 504. 3 Abridgment, vol. ii. p. 5G. * Ibid. vol. ii. p. 49. 5 jbid. vol. ii. p. 11. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPERITY. 233 that time distinguished in a very high degree by the cheerfiihiess of their manners, their hospitality, and a courtesy, the more estim- able that it was indicative of real benevolence." ^ 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, Avho 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 Wilbeiforce. " 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."^ 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. 2 Life of Jay, 2d edition, p. 321. 234- ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. Duty of Man, says, " My Sabbaths are sweet to my soul."i 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 lioly cheerfulness.'^ 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."^ 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 !" * 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."^ 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 every 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 the preceding words are a part, a writer asks, " Where shall we find in scenes of wordly 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 ? " ^ 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. 4G3. ■■^ Life, 2d edition, vol. i. p, 153, aud vol. ii. p. Gl. 3 Life, by his Son, ch. viii. * Life, vol. ill. pp. 96, 97. ^ Memoir (1828), p. 479. 6 Dr. Innes {Tract for Uie Times, p. 9), himself an example of cheerful piety throughout a long life. CONNEXION WITH PERSONAL PROSPERITY. 2.3o 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 difterent 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 Harold : — "It is that vi-eariness 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 — " But I must 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 adversity in the noon-tide of his day, and by fulfilling to him at its close the words, " at evening time it is light." " I may not tread With them those pathways — to the feverish bed Of sickness bound ; yet, 0 my God ! I bless Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled ]\Iy chastened heart, and all its throbbings stilled To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness."^ 1 Sabbath Sonnet, Mrs. Ilemars' Wcrk? (1839), vol. vii. p 2S8. 23 G ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER VI. DOMESTIC BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. " A peculiar blessing may be expected upon those families where there is due care taken that the Sabbath be strictly and devoutly observed." — Jonathan Edwakds. The diversities in the domestic life of various countries and times have generally turned 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 tliat the world has fully availed itself of her salutary influence. It is only in the Bible that her claims are clearly and authoritatiA'ely 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 oftspriiig ; sole propriety In paradise of all things common else ! By tlice, adulterous Lust, was driven from men Among the bestial herds to range : by thee Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure, Eelatinns dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother, first were known. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 'Jot Far be it, that I should write thee sin, or blame, (3r think thee unbefitting holiest place, Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets." ^ In countries, accordingly, Avhere 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 in 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 owing the "long life" and comparative "prosperity" of the empire ; but dej^lorable 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 Parailinc Lost, Book iv. 238 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 3aeld 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,^ 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. ^ To the wellbeiug of the family, therefore, some Sabbath aj^pears to be indispensable. 2. Xor is domestic hfe virtuous or comfortable where the weeldy day of rest stands connected with a false or an impure re- ligion. 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 lUiman sacrifices, and with the belief that women are slaves, who must compensate by their labour for the price of their purchase. 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 degrada- tion, 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 tliis, with other particulars, that, corrupting the wife and dishonouring the husband, it has humbled both. Let French writers say liow 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 hands of the priests," adding, " Young man, you must ask of the priest the hand of the maiden before applying to her parents. . . . Poor man ! you will have 1 Negj-o Slavery, C. Observer (182G), p. 679. 2 Baylee, p. 81, and Temli London City Mission Report, p. 18. DOMESTIC BEXEFITS. 239 a wife minus her heart and soul ; and joii will learn by experience that he who gave her to you on such terms, knows well how to resume his sway over her."^ Another remarks, " In France we are obliged to use a periphrase, as if we were strangers to the thing : the ho7ne of England and the chez-soi of France."^ It is not long since some of the leading men in that country, alarmed at the effects of the prevalent profanation of the Lord's day among the peoj^le, 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."^ 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. " 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 torn, Xor shrinks the female eye, nor ev'n allects 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 !"* In harmony with such amusements, such a Sunday, and such a priesthood, is the disorganized state of the family and of general 1 Priests, Women, and Families (1846), pp. 61, 62. 2 Roussel, Catholic and Protestant Nations, vol. ii. p. 80. 3 Letter, in My Connexion with the Sabbath Movement in France, by C. Cochrane. 4 Childe Harold, caut. i. 8t. 68-80. 240 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. society in Spain, where every man must wear a weapon ; where the most petty journey requires the preparation of a warlike en- terprise ;^ and where " every town has its Casa de Expositos, 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."- 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 Abbe Gregoire exclaim, " This law will soon ruin the nation." But this was not all. " Inftiucy 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." ^ 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 aff"ections 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 1 IrTing's Alhamhra (1832), vol. i. p. 7 2 Rule's Mission to Gibraltar and Spain, pp. 237-239. 3 Beecher's Perils of AiJwisni, p. 80. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 241 their husbands, are almost as common as larcenies were wont to be."i 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." ^ 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 — 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 ? are they not Jerusalem ?" " The seventh day this ; the jubilee of man. London ! right well thou know'st the day of prayer." In Lord BjTon's time " the day of prayer " v*^as known by many "a spruce citizen," "washed artisan," and "smug apprentice," only as the 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 1 Dr. Esquirol and Mennais, in Boyle Lectures for 1821, by Harness, vol. ii. pp. 110, 111. * Viel-Castel, in Roussel, vol. ii. p. 81. Q 242 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. say that one million of families are without the benefits, physical, intellectual, moral, religious, and economical, which those institu- tions convey. Let those, who know England better than we, speak to its consequent domestic condition. As for Scotland, we know that its home virtues and comforts have, in not a few instances, de- generated. The excessive competition in all kinds of trade has been injurious to personal and social religion, and the wages earned hav^e 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 "To hear the song Of kindred praise arise from humble 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 Chi'istian 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, Koman 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 DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 243 troubles and dangers of their husbands, wherever the duties of their profession may call them." Baron D'Haussez observes, " All things considered, ceteris paribus, thanks to the influence 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.^ 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 of 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." 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 sufi&ce, 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 seventeeth 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 1 See, for all these testimonies, Rousscl, as before, vol. i. pp. 57, 58 ; toI. ii. p, 80. 24:4: ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. Bibles which the French Protestants were wont to hand down from father to son, as a sacred patrimony and inestimable trea- 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. Mght and morn- ing the members of each family assemble for prayer. There are no formalities or pompous ceremonies ; they content themselves witli 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."^ 5. When Sabbath observance is begun or resumed by any family or people, the sure and speedy consequence is an improvement in their domestic character and condition. The proof of this aver- ment 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 Lord's day, 293 ; persons who have become communicants, 1236 ; backsliders re- stored to chm'ch communion, 253 ; drunkards reclaimed, 1102 ; fallen females rescued, 524 ; unmarried couples induced to marry, 300; family prayer commenced, 587."^ A mission was begun in Aneiteum, one of the islands of the New Hebrides, in 1848. For- merly 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 Sab- bath is as well observed as in any part of Scotland. Family wor- 1 Rousscl, vol. ii. pp. 205, 206. a i^ews of the Churches, vol. vi. p. 162. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 245 ship is universally observed every morning and evening ; in each of fifty or sixty districts, into which the island has been 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. Inglis, one of the missionaries, " 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." ^ Scarcely less interesting is the change which 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 cottages the voice of prayer and praise is daily heard, are "a loving and grateful people." ^ 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 con- nected with the observance of the law of marriage, and with a gi'eatly 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, gardens, and all places of public resort," while 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."^ A writer, describing two villages in the south of England inhabited by fishermen, supplies another striking contrast. " Although but a mile and a half apart from each other, there is a great difference between the character and 1 Reformed Presbyterian Magazine for September 1860. - Evangelical Magazine for August "I860. 3 Tharn on the Sabbath (1830), p. 273. Roussel, vol. i p. 280. 246 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. habits of the people of Mousehole and those of Newlyn. There is much more recklessness in the latter than in the former. The 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 aflford 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- 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."^ 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 were 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 a course of years, five were broken up by the separation 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 gi'ave. One committed suicide, and nearly all have suffered for want of the comforts of life. Of some forty or forty-five descendants, about twenty are known to be notorious drunkards, jockeys, or 1 Labour and the Poor, Morning Chronicle, Nov. 21, 1849. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 247 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 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. 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 childi'en 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 suff'ering for want 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, maintaining the institutions of their fathers, and now reaping the benefits of their Sabbath-keeping habits and principles. These facts, say the naiTators, speak a language not to be mistaken, and they come to you from the hand of the descendants of the five families.^ 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 1 Puritan Recorder, quoted in Christian Treasure/ for 1850, p. 549. t 248 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. connexion of the one with the other, therefore, cannot be arbitraiy. 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 parents build churches, support ministers, or frequent the worship of God."^ 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 honouj 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, aff'ection, and sympathy are cultivated ; children and domestics are instructed ; and family ties are strengthened, hallowed, and 1 Dwigbt'B Theologj^, Ser. 119. DOMESTIC BENEFITS. 249 blessed by family prayer. Who tbat has participated in the pious, 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 land" 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 their preparation of myriads for everlasting degradation and woe, — there must be a sacred remembrance in the church, the world, 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. 250 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH CHAPTER VII. ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO NATIONS. " I hare lived long enough to know what at one time I did not believe— that no society can be uplield in happiness and honour, without the sentiments of religion." — Words of Laplace, not long before his death, to Professor Sedgwick. " The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to divine authority." — Adam SmithA " Wealth," 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." ^ 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 " The baronet's next undertaking was a quarto essay against what he then considered 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, Pr. 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 claims to divine authority.' " — Memoir of Sir John Sinclair, by Chambers. 2 Conversations on Polit. Econ, Sixth Edit. p. 24. TO NATIONS. 251 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 upor. for large and expensive undertakings,mnd for any emergencies that may arise from unpropitious seasons or from prevailing disease. It 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 with 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. 252 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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 we except Lombardy, matters are not much better, and even that fertile, well-watered TO NATIONS. 253 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,^ without feeling the refreshing and animating influence of a w^eekly day of repose and religious instruction. These coun- tries, however much they profit by the indirect influence of tlie institution coming upon them from other lands, and stimulatiug them by means of commerce to the exertions by v/hich 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 coimtry 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. ^ " 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 sus- pension of labour is £166,666, 13s. 4d., making an annual loss of nearly seven millions. — Bell's Geopraphy, vol. ii. 272, note. 2 Christian Treasury (1846), p. 3T9. The vrriter informs us that 400,000 quarters of grain, on an average, need to be imported every year to prevent multitudes from perishing by famine. 254 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 advantage of being situated near noble rivers and lakes ! " The Cantons of Zurich, Basle, Geneva, Neuchatel, Glarus, and Outer Appenzell, which are all Protestant, are distinguished above the rest by their industry. One circumstance is re- markable, 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 demarcation 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 instance, 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 priest- hood, and teaches men to rely on their own exertions."^ 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'3 Switzerland in 1817, vol. i. pp. 202, 203. TO NATIONS. 255 will remain always poor and dirty."^ " 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 was a change more remarkable. English-looking breadth of tillage, vines and maize, and walmit groves and pleasant villages have succeeded to all their opposites and absences ; and so these go on improvingly all through the Canton de Vaud."^ 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."^ 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 : — 1797. 1842. Belfast, Tons 13,062 136,747 Londonderry, .... „ 2,856 33,299 Cork, . „ 13,424 87,925 Dublin, „ 33,485 61,257 1 Mugge's Switzerland, toI. i. p. 203. 2 Diari/, by Paterfamilias (1856), p. 220. a Dill's Ireland's Miseries, pp. 30, 32. 256 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 Eevelation. The reason of all this spirit-stirring eff'ect 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 pui'e 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 the 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 eff'ectual as it is for producing popular intelligence and vii-tue, 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. 257 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." i 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 ad- mitted 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."^ To the Sabbath, as a principal cause, was Britain indebted for such a reign as that of William iii.. 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 Cathohc 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 sufi"ered so much deterioration. No Protestant prince lost his throne. And it is especially worthy of grateful remembrance 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 a Grandfather, 8to. (1848), p. 211. 258 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH people, men, women, and children, work in them on Sundays, as the Gauls 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." ^ 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. ^ What says M. de Montalembert, in name of a Commission reporting to the Freiich 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, ^ where Sunday is observed with the most scrupulous care, and where two and a half millions of peo- ple are kept in order by three battalions of infantry, and some troops of guards, while Paris requires the presence of 50,000 men."* The connexion thus observed to subsist between a Christian 1 Bunsen's Hippolytus and his Ar/c, vol. ii. pp. 16, 17. 2 Thorn's Statistics, quoted in Dill, pp. 74, 81. 3 " 0 thou, resort and mart of all the earth." — Cowpbe. 4 Rapport, &c. (1860), pp. 37, PS. TO NATIONS. 259 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 difiiculties 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 ; 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 tbeir Maker."^ 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 quiUizing 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 (French) condemned to Sunday labour, he thus proceeds : " You 1 Blackstone's Commentaries, vo). iv. p. 63. 260 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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 children ; 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, and 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 sun-ound their Queen with respectful aff'ection : 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."i 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 Vol. ii. pp. 16-18. TO NATIONS. 261 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."^ 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 1 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 would 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 I Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. 122. How different from the following : "No woman's honour is safe in any village through which a French detachment happens to ba passing." Letters from Turin. — Daily Express, June 22, 1859. 262 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH into 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 robbeiy, that none was heard to ask an alms, and that if a baker, a mason, or a wagoner, attracted notice by his diligence or sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers." ^ 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," ^ 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.^ And we see tens of thousands ruined by vice, 1 Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 154. 2 I)r. S. Smith's Philosophy of Health, vol, i. (1851), p. 147. 3 Ihid. p. 108. TO NATIONS. 263 avarice, vanity, ambition, luxury, indolence, intemperance, and other abettors of the claims of the grave. " The death-rate in Great Britain," said Mr. Chad wick, 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 1 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, it 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 prin- ciple of gathering truth from a sufficient induction of particulars, have failed in so many instances to discover the root of the pre- vailing evil to be impiety, and to learn that aU 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, bodily vigour, and longevity, according as they have laboured or 264 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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 not be questioned 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 nmnber of inhabitants is greater in Italy than in any country of Europe."^ 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 foUows : Ulster, 1 in 47*3G;Leiii- 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 know- ledge 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 the 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. Not to mention how much the existence of a Sabbath 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 win be found that the members who generally compose them, are at the same time members of Christian churches. And it is in- deed one of the glories of Christianity and its Sabbath, that a class of men are thereby elevated from circumstances, which de- press and cut short the earthly existence of their fellows, to a 1 Syttem of Universal Geography founded on tlic icorks of Malte Biiin and Balbi, p. 5G2. TO NATION'S. 265 degree of comfort and a measure of life equal to that 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 works of their hands." Let us mark the closing words 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."i On the importance of a prevailing morality to the welfare of a State it would be superfluous to enlarge. Let falsehood be general, 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 1 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, war and plunder the chief occupations, famine, pestilence, and death following in the train of sloth, ignorance, and rapacity, and the scene enacted in many places 1 Isaiah Ixv. 20-22 ; Ixvi. 23. 266 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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 arresting decay, will imjjel society onward in a course of continual improvement ? Let us learn from the dissolute manners of the Babylonians ; from " the private debauchery and public profligacy 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 degrada- tion ; 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 preservation and ad- vancement of nations appears not only from the failure of all other expedients to secure these results, but from the uniform success in attaining them, which has distinguished the institution. The authorities in France, civil and ecclesiastical, began a few years ago to perceive that something better than a continental Sabbath is required, as was evinced in the efforts of M. de Montalembert, and of the Archbishop of Paris, to expose and correct its enormities. It would be well that foreigners who are desirous of promoting the observance of the Lord's day, would ponder the peculiarities which have imparted to the practice in this coimtry 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 neighbouring coimtries 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 of raising up every year thousands from among those whom their own Sabbath-breaking and that of others have TO NATIONS. 267 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 remarkable changes of character, from a slothful- ness hardly admitting of the moderate exertion necessary for cooking food to diligence in cultivating the soil, building comfort- able dwellings, and engaging in commerce ; from a total reckless- ness of life to feelings of mercy towards man and beast ; from the desire of plunder to respect for property ; from lawless liber- tinism to conjugal affection and fidelity, — which have crowned missionary eff'orts 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 oi:)posiug the sacred Sabbath, and to unite with its friends in 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- 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 268 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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." ^ *' The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because lie 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. There remains to be noticed one more requisite to social pro- sperity— a pure religion. The conviction that the public recogni- 1 This has been said, in Perils of the Nation, of labourers in the south of England. The following furnishes both a contrast and a counterpart : — "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 Highlanders attaining the means of independent living amidst the wilds of America : but the wretched serfs of Hungiiry have neither the intelligence nor the means to find so blessed an asylum." —Austria and the Austrians, vol. i. p. 19. TO NATIONS. 269 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 — " Within this circular idea, Called vulgarly a tomb, The impressions and ideas rest, That constituted Hume" — such paradoxes are regarded as no more affecting the common rule of faith in the existence of matter and mind than any lusus 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 downwards 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 which 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 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 270 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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, Eome 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 dismption 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 be intrusted to the hands of Atheism without involving general ruin, any more than Phaeton could for a day attempt to guide 1 Douglas's Truihs of Religion, p. 12. TO NATIONS. 271 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 Rome, the most perfect ancient faiths, 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 race 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 eveiy 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 those Churches, to account for the superior social condition of their members to that of the whole world besides, but there must 272 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH 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 been already presented, would support a more unqualified con- fession. But it is sufiicient 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, — a 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." -^ 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 m.ost 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. Lindsay respect- ing President Jefferson, said : " He is generally reported to be an unbeliever, but if so, you know he cannot be far from us."^ 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 Sandwich Islands, which would on the whole bear advantageous comparison with that of the best regulated societies of the old 1 Quarterly Review, vol. xciv. p. 184. 2 Robert HaU's M'orJxs, vol. v. p. 134. TO NATIONS. 273 world,^ 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, aca- demies, and schools, while Unitarianism had maintained a kind of dying life almost exclusively within a single State. ^ The want of diffusive and moral power in the creed as held in this country, was fully exposed by Hall and Fuller, till its friends, probably provoked by such strictures, and constrained by surrounding ex- ample, 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 atmos- phere, 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.^ This creed has been fully tried in Protestant countries on the Continent as well as in England and Scotland, for both abroad and at home there have been predominant classes who 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 of continental Protestantism with Romanism or with infidelity, and to the utter inefficaey of High Churchism in England and of 1 Quarterly Review, vol. xciv. p. 91. 2 Christian Times, Jan. 27, 1854, 3 Memoirs, vol. i. p. 411. 274 ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO NATIONS. 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 numbers on the Continent, by the evangelical clergy and people of the established churches of England and Scotland, by far the greater proportion of the dissenters in both countries, and by the great body of the people in the United States, to whom might be added our Protestant 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 pro- moting 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 delight, 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 Isa. Mii. 13. 14. DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER I. PROOFS FROM ITS ADAPTATIONS AND ADVANTAGES THAT THE SABBATH IS OF DIVINE ORIGIN. " If this counsel or work be 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. 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 278 DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. the religion of the Sabbath. It is only in countries where that religion has existed that benevolent institutions have been known. ^ It is in the lands in which the Sabbath flourishes that charity abounds. It is the classes and individuals of these lands who reverence the institution that are pre-eminent for beneficence. The selfishness of man would not originate the benignant arrange- ment ; 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 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 I China has been lately held to be an exception to the remark, but on grounds which require further elucidation. PROOFS FROM REASON. 279 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 mshed a 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 results 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 was 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 benetit it was designed. That they would never have appropriated 280 DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. the gift in its full extent without an external and controlling influence exerted on their minds and hearts, is manifest not only from the dislike which men feel to a holy day, but from the ignorance and pride by which they are led into the greatest diver- gences of opinion and practice on all sorts of subjects. The Sabbath must be socially as well as personally received and ob- served. And what but Divine power could bring so many various individuals, with all their supposed conflict of interests as masters and servants, employers and employed, sovereigns and subjects, to agreement respecting the propriety, the time, and the engagements of such an institution, or what but Divine authority could secure for it an unquestioning submission ? Without that commanding influence, the discrepancy of sentiment on the matter must have produced a Sabbath of so endless a diversity of season and obser- vance 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 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 exi3ressed 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 pro- perty, 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. "^ In the awe with which, as just remarked, the institution in- spires the hearts of its enemies, we discover another testimony to its superhuman ordination and character. The inconsistency is 1 Dicine Origin and Obligation of the Sabbath (1850), p. 17. PROOFS FROM REASON. 281 not in our statement, but in the person's own mind, when 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 tlie wrong, and yet the wrong pursue." There are many, indeed, who profess a superiority to the fears and convictions which haunt e\^-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, Avhich 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 and laws change their views and conduct, and then divulge the truth, that under all their seeming gaiety they had been wretched men. But justice overtakes others in their profligate career, and they become amen- able to the outraged laws of their country. In these circumstances, as has often been observed, the confession is very commonly 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 uni- formly fix on the desecration of the Lord's day as the primary cause of their undoing can be explained only on these two suppo- sitions— 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 282 DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHOEITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 unrestrained pleasure. There is a grasping avarice. There is the strong passion for worldly eminence and fame. Under the influence 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 themselves may be enriched, though at the expense of the ruined health and neg- lected minds and morals of their servants. All this, which 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 ? 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. 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 re- moves 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 : <' Refrain from these men, and let them alone ; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 283 CHAPTER 11. DIVINE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH AT THE CEEATION, AND ITS OBSERVANCE BY THE PATRIARCHS. " The Sabbath 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 thiis 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, of the evidence supplied by reason and experience on behalf of the institution, to say, that the Sab- 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- 284 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. fallible rule, which must be followed, if we would rightly discharge the obligations, and fully receive the blessings of the day of rest. " The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture."^ Before proceeding to exhibit, both inferentially and directly, what we conceive to be the Divine coun- sel as respects the Sabbatic institution, we must offer a few re- marks on an opinion which has led to much error on the subject, and which is itself most unfounded. The opinion is, that, because there is no formal command in the narrative of Genesis ii. 1-3 for the observance of the seventh day, or in the New Testament for the observance of the first day of the week, we have no proof that either a primitive Sabbath or the Lord's day has, or ever had, the force of a law. The error takes its rise in a preconceived notion of what is necessary as evidence on tliis subject. When we look into the sacred volume, we find that the Divine will may be made known by actions or by statements, from which we have to infer our duty or our privilege, as well as in a directly preceptive or declaratory form. If express statute were in every case required to constitute obligation, then no law of marriage was enacted in Paradise, because the Creator merely performed an action and pro- nounced a benediction ; no real, because only an inferential, pro- hibition of murder was uttered in the words, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ;" and in the pro- mise, " They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord," there is no actual, be- cause no explicit, injunction to every Christian to impart religious instruction to others so long as all know not the Lord from the least to the greatest. On the same principle, there never existed even a Jewish Sabbath, for both in the wilderness of Sin and at Sinai the commands respecting a day of rest refer to a previous gift and law, of which, however, we have no record except in the narrative of Genesis. The principle, therefore, must be false. It is false, for from the case of the law of marriage, which our Lord declares was from the beginning, and from the other cases named, we learn that actions and statements, without the formality of a 1 Westminster Confession of Faith, ch. i. sect. 6. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 285 precept, have been employed to express " the will of God con- cerning us." It is false, for nothing is more certain than the existence of a Jewish Sabbath, promulgated in the Decalogue, not, however, as a new, but as an old institution, founded on the work and rest of the first week of time. " If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." On the other hand, the plainest commands, as, for example, the Fourth, are easily overlooked, misapplied, or got rid of by those who have no desire to perform the works which they enjoin. And if such persons " hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." 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 GOT) 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."^ 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 1 Gen. ii. 1-3. 286 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. respecting the original of the world and of man, let us mark the leading facts as they bear upon our suliject. God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. As the Almighty " fainteth not, neither is weary," 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 be understood in a sense compatible with the constant activity and worthy of the majesty of the Creator — as a rest not from aU work, but from the one work specified — a rest of cessation and satisfaction, not of languid repose.^ He who afterwards on renewing the face of the earth rejoiced in his works, did, after making heaven and earth in six days, rest on the seventh, and " was refreshed,"^ 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 means of benefit and pleasure to intellectual and sentient creatures. In this last-mentioned form did He bless the seventh day. In no other mode could uncon- scious, insensible time be blessed. That day was distinguished above the others by being constituted a season and means of peculiar 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- 1 Shabath, as in 1 Sam. xxv. 9 ; Job xxxii. 1, " signifieth 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, snb. voc. " It implies resting fiom, not in work."— iVao Translation, by De Sola, &c. 2 Ex. xxxi. 17. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION". 287 pose, consecration to the Divine service. i 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- 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 respect 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."^ 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 set apart in honour of the great work, or rather of Himself as its Architect. The appropriation by Jehovah of the seventh day to beneficent and sacred use assuredly contemplated not His own good or His own observance, as some have strangely maintained, but a benefit to be enjoyed, and a service to be performed by man. For man was all this done, and " for our sakes, no doubt, this is written." This direct purpose of the Divine procedure neither excluded the pleasure of other creatures as a subordinate design, nor interfered with the ultimate end of the Creator's glory, for which man him- self and all beings were made, but was rather tributary to both. When we consider the great things which the Almighty has done for men — in the donation to them of the earth — in the co-opera- tion of aU events " for good to them who love God" — in His pre- ference before all temples, before that even of the whole material universe, of " the upright heart and pure" — in the preparation 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 1 " Ab usu et statu communi ad peculiarem et sacrum separare." — Eichhorn. " Usibus divinis accommodaTit — a communi et profane usu segregavit in usum sacrum — ad culium Dei destinayit." — Kirch. Concord. 2 Ex. xx. 11. 288 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. things of His law — above all, in his manifesting Himself in flesh for human redemption, — it appears to be only like Himself, — having occupied six days in a work which He could have per- formed 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. When we consider, further, that the work of the six days consisted hi the providing 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, to 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. To this meaning of the Creator's conduct, so transparent in itself, and so entirely in harmony with His other procedure, the Redeemer has set His seal in the words of the Fourth Command- ment, and in his memorable saying, " The Sabbath was made for man." The institution thus appointed at the creation for mankind, was designed to be a law, right, and blessing to them in all time. There is every indication of universality in the primaeval arrange- ment. The example of the Almighty in working and resting was inscribed 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 was hallowed for all ages, when the earliest instal- ment was sanctified. Having been prior to all special dispensa- tions 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 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 289 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 affirming that the law has become obsolete — that it does not remain in full force on the human family 1 And who may not, on the best grounds and with perfect confidence, say, " Here is an inde- feasible right on which I take my stand against every attempt to deprive me of the seventh part of my time — here is a boon which, as divinely conferred, no man can justly or with impunity take away f In this instance, again, is the self-evident sense of the history confirmed by our Lord, when he says, " The Sabbath was made for man." Had it not been made for mankind, a very different answer to the cavils of superstition would have been requisite and would have been ready. The references in other parts of Scripture to a previously exist- ing Sabbath not only confirm the preceding and common interpre- tation of the narrative before us, 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 his- torian. One of those references has been already cited more than once, in the saying of oui: Lord, "The Sabbath was made for man" — made, therefore, for the first man and all his descendants alike. We find others in the account of the giving of the manna. The children of Israel had, in their journeying 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 cer- tain 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 Sab- bath to the Lord." It is impossible 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 T 290 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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, how- ever, 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, 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 no alternative but to believe that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation. 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 : " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." The language reduplicates on the earliest notice of the 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 woidd if the obligation had been new, " Wherefore the Lord blesseth the Sabbath-day and halloweth it," but " Wherefore tlie 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 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 291 originated at the creation and described in Genesis, that is com- manded to be kept in sacred remembrance. We arrive at the same conclusion respecting the original of the Sabbath by comparing the words of Genesis with a passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The writer of that Epistle has been warning the Christian converts from Judaism against the unbelief which 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 he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." " There remaineth therefore a rest for 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." Whatever service may be rendered to the cause of the Christian Sabbath by the argument and lan- guage of the apostle, which is not our present subject, it is evi- dent that they could have no bearing or meaning, if the rest of the seventh day had not subsisted and been enjoyed from the be- ginning of time. 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 JOURNEYINGS 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 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 Z92 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 two centuries and a half 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 Hahhatiae^ scarcely less interesting and con- vincing than the Horce PaulincB ? One of the circumstances that could not have occurred but for 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 ftict 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,i 1 Gen. iv. 15. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 293 wlio first employed 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 wdien 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 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 fortli the dove out of the ark." The friends of Job sat down with him, in token of their sympathy, seven days and seven nights. We read of the " week" in the days of Laban and Jacob. And Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days.^ But whence this regard to iGen. viii. ; xxix. 27, 28. 294 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. periods of seven days ] Tlieie 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 pei-petuity. The histor}^, 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 wTitten the law on the phenomena of nature. 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 tlie 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 ? His own piety, tlie 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 eff'ect 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 ja-evalence 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 TESTIMONY' OF nEVELATIOX. 295 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," 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 Satin, 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 expounding the account of the offerings of Cain and Abel, obsen^s that the Hebrew word for hrow/ht is used never in reference to private and domestic sacrifices, but always of such jis wore in the times of the Jewish polity brouglit to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. The friends of Job were divinely instructed to offer up for themselves a burnt-offering of seven bidlocks and of seven rams. Instruction, too, was communicated in the assemblies for worship. Job had " in.stnicted 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 sendee of God, it is to be presimied that there would be one for the consecration of a certain amount of time to the same pui-pose. 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 296 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. the sons of Job had their clays for feasting, we cannot reasonably doubt that the sons of God had their days for worship. And it was so. " There waB 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,"i 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 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 con- clusion 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 1 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 1 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 prin- cipal means in fostering the faith, by which those " elders obtained a good report," appears from the felt and proved necessity of a 1 Isa. IxT. 20. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 297 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 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 more : 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 Hebrew^s go, that they might hold a feast unto God in the wilderness. AVhat 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 1 Get you unto your burdens. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest [sabbatize] from their burdens ;" and 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- 298 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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, those circumstances could not have existed. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 200 CHAPTER III. THE SABBATH PEOMULGATED FEOM SIXAI AS ONE OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MOKAL LAW. " Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy." When we pass from the Patriarclial to the Jewish dispensation of religion, we discover increasing e\adence 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.''^ It is no just objection to the general and permanent character 1 Ex. xs. 9-11. 300 DIV1^-E AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. of legislation that it has been connected with local and temporary circumstances. It has been the Divine method to make known matters of unirersal concern in connexion with particular places and occurrences, and to present them, not in cold abstractions, but as naturally springing up amidst the business and occasions of human life. Thus the appointment of deacons grew out of the circumstances of the Apostles and the increasing accessions to the Church. The Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ in the presence only of his disciples, and a renewed revelation of its divine authority arose from the abuses which certain individuals had introduced, and was given only to one church. A great part, indeed, of the instruction which we find in Scripture respecting the everlasting and catholic truth as it is in Jesus, was addressed to churches and individuals of the first age of Christianity. It was the same in times still more remote. The very earliest notice of a Saviour was not directly addressed to the world, which it was intended to encourage and bless, but to the great enemy of the Saviour and of man. And other animating promises which have cheered the people of God in all subsequent time were made to individuals. Nor must it be supposed 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. This is neither an uncommon nor a trifling error. How many regard the people of Israel as if they were 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 — whose worthies are no models — whose spirit is unchristian. Nothing could be more remote from the truth. Judaism, indeed, was rehgion in its infancy, but it was a religion wise, just, and good. It was a local and stationary, not like Christianity a moving circulating light, but this character served important purposes. By Judaism religion was preserved in the world, and a testimony steadily borne to the existence of the one living TESTIMONY OF EEVELATIOX. 301 and true God. 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, tlie 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. From the remarks now made we should be led to expect, and prepared to account for, the embedding as it were of laws, suscep- tible of the most extensive and enduring application, in a phraseology and in allusions of a local and temporary character. And yet the actual specialties in the Decalogue are so few and so clearly con- sonant to the universality of its import and bearings as to show how careful the Lawgiver was to render it inexcusable for any one to reject its right and claim to be the law of the world. There is the preface, " I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage." Strictly speaking, the preface or preamble does not enter into the law. In the present case, it is the Gospel rather than a part of the Law. How obvious the jDrinciple implied, which is, that the mercy of the Lawgiver, especially as exhibited in the work of Redemption, is the mighty inducement to do His will, for when we consider the faithful among Israel as constituting with Christians one Church, " the seed of Abraham," and " heirs according to the promise," and that the redemption from Egypt was a type of the great Redemption, as well as a step to its accomplishment, it does not require what is called an " accommodation" to apply this preface far beyond the typical deliverance, and to regard it as pointing to the infinitely more influential motives to obedience arising from a spiritual and everlasting salvation. There is also this promise to filial obedience, " That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The apostle Paul does not hesitate to apply the fifth commandment, and its promise too, to the children of Christian parents, " Children, obey your parents in the Lord : for this is right. Honour thy father 302 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. and mother, which is the first commandinent with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." And, once more, the second commandment has annexed to it a threatening and a promise, which may be conceived by some to be applicable only to the Jews : " Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." But both the curse and the blessing were attached to the law of God long before it was given at Sinai, and have extended far beyond the boundaries of Judea, as well as endured long after the Mosaic economy had ceased. Was there anything Judaical in the blessing pronounced upon Shem and Japheth, or in the curse uttered against Ham ■? Did not both the curse and the blessing begin to take effect before the time of Moses 1 Have they not continued to operate in all nations % And are not their effects perceptible in the circumstances of the descendants of Noah even at this hour ? That the Decalogue was not even as a code prescribed to the Jews only, or abrogated along witli 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 TESTIMONY OF EEVELATION. 303 it. " And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thmiders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the moimt, 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." ^ 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 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."^ 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 Decalogue above the other laws of the Jews would seem to be "a refusing of him that spake on earth." The law of the ten commandments, 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 to be taken down from the Divine lips by any human amanuensis. Tlie 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 1 Exodus xix. 16-18. 2 Dgut. v. 22, 31. 304 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 The language in which the laws of the Jews are respectively men- tioned in several parts of Scripture concurs with the circumstances 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 judg- ments 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 ;"^ and in Jeremiah, "I spake not unto 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." ^ Wo 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 1 Hos. vi. 6. - Jer. vii. 22, 23. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 305 have omitted the weighter matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." 1 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 f'^ while the apostle Paul says of another law — plainly that of the Deca- logue— " 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."^ 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- 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 law^s 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, were, like some of the ordinances of Christianity, manifestly pro- vided, 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 Jew^ish polity and ritual, which were suited exclusively to a certain spot of earth, as well as to a people that stood in special relations to the Almighty, and had extraordinary functions to fulfil. With the enlargement 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 read in the utter inapplicability of the ancient priesthood ^ Matt, xxiii. 23. 2 Acts xv. 10. 3 Rom. vii. 12, 14, 22. .TOf) DIVINE AITHOIMTY OF THE SABBATH. and sacrifices to a period when the substance of these shadows has been realized, and in the impossibility that a system which de- manded a periodical resort to Jerusalem for worship, the suspen- sion 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 those 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 tmth and righteousness. The Mosaic ritual was another form of the ever- lasting gospel. Circumcision and the Passover pointed to the most momentous facts and blessings, as do still our baptism and euchar- ist. And the judicial law was distinguished by its perfect equity, and by its merciful regard to the stranger, the widow, the father- less, and even the lower animals. The change which befell these institutions 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 God ; to employ no images in His worship ; to serve Him in spirit and in truth ; to spend one clay in seven in rest- ing from ordinary work and in sacred engagements ; to honour parents ; to have respect to the life, purity, property, and repu- tation 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 transgTession of them as truly deserving of blame and punisliment 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 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 307 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 ? 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 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 ^ 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 Christianity ; 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 308 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. honour of its almighty and gracious Author. Having rested from His work of creation, God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath-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 meditcitions, of the great Kedemption — a work 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 ? How comprehensive 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 Abraham, " I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect," prove that these persons were acquainted with the obligation 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 reverential 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 consequences, in the obedience of Isaac to Abraham, and in other instances. Cain was condemned for taking the life of his brother, and was con- TESTIMONY OF KEVELATION. 309 scions of his guilt, while at the commeri cement, again as it were, of the world, after the flood, the law afterwards forming 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 God 1 " showed the autho- rity 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 shait 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 Abra- ham, 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 covetous- ness. It might be reasonably concluded from the preceding in- stances of respect for nine of the commandments that the Sabbatic law was in force ; but we are not left to this inferential mode of ascertaining the fact, there being none of the precepts of the de- calogue 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 imder the law of God, — the same law which after their time wdiS> formally 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 w^hen 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 310 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 showeth 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 1 Much every way : chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." In the Law and Gospel known 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 1 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 have not the law are said 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 aU 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 of Moses. 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 freed 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 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 311 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 men 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 attractive 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 oldness of the letter. What shall we say then ? Is the law sin 1 God forbid. The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. I delight in the law of God after the inward 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."^ 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 1 Matt. V. 17-19. 312 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 " cor ban," 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 he should do that he might have eternal life, Jesus replied, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments ;" and then, in answer to another question inquiring what these were, said, " Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adul- tery, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother : and. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."^ Here five of the ten commandments are specified, 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. "^ 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 1 Matt. xix. 16-19. 2 Matt. xxii. S7-40. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 313 permanence of the Decalogue. We have abeady referred to the inculcation by the apostle Paul of the Fifth Commandment on the children of Christian parents, and to his enforcement of it by its ancient promise of long life.^ The apostle 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.- The apostle James, also, thus writes respecting the law of the ten commandments — " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also. Do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet, if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."^ 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 Eph. vi. 1-3 2 Rom. iii 31, vii 12, xiii, 9. 3 james ii. 10, 11. 314 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER IV. 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 vain ;" they 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 of 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 sea- son of rest from their ordinaiy business, and of instruction, re- flection, and devotion. Many of them had scarcely any other TESTIMONY OF REVELATION, 315 means of mental improvement, or any other opportunity of de- liberately 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 Christi- anity would, in these unchanged circumstances of man, be without its holy day, would be to suppose that it would bo less wise, pure, and benevolent, 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 beings 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 for the opinion that the Sabbath of Paradise had ceased. But what plea of this nature can be preferred Avhere that institution is made the basis of legislation, and its ancient reason, character, and sanction, only in expanded form and more solemn manner, renewed. 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 corruptions, and if there was any precept more particularly vindi- 3 1 6 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF 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 these reasons for expecting a Christian holy day the fact, that the hope was cherished by Old Testament predictions and promises. We are there assured 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 referring our readers to the fifty-sixth and fifty-eighth chap- ters of Isaiah, where there are glowing representations of the coming dispensation 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.''^ 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 ' Isaiah Ixvi. 23. 1 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 317 the oflBce-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. "^ FIFTH PROPOSITION. WHILE A VARIETY OF 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 some alterations in the Sabbath, in adaptation to its own character and purposes. 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 entitled to remembrance ; of a redemption more precious far than 1 Alexander's Prophecies of Isaiih. 318 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 hare 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 "? There is one typical representation in particular that calls for remark. It occurs in Ezekiel's vision of tlie Temple. That this vision was not realized in the building of the second temple appears, among other facts, from the difi'erences in its worship from that prescribed by the law of Moses ; 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 priests shall make your burnt-offerings upon the altar, and your peace -ofterings : and I will accept you, saith the Lord."i 1 Ezek. sliii. 27. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. /> I 9 SIXTH PROPOSITION. — THE FACTS RECORDED IN THE NEW TES- TAMENT, AS REGARDS BOTH THE PERPETUITY AND BLESS- INGS 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 I'itual, 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." ^ In the preceding verses the apostle had referred to the privilege enjoyed by the Christians at Colosse, of freedom from the obli- gation to observe Jewish ceremonies. They had been circumcised, indeed, but it was with " the circumcision 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 Sab- bath-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 denote the Christian Sabbath, 2 and which will again come under our notice. Whether, then, we consider the relation of the words to the apostle's sub- ject and purpose, the connexion of confessedly Jewish ceremonies with the Sabbath-days in the verse, or the meaning of this term 1 Col. ii. 16, 17. - Matt. xxiv. 20 ; Acts xiii. 42. 320 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. itself, we must believe that the Colossian couverts, and, by parity of reason, all Christians, were by this sentence of the apostle ex- empted 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 : " 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 bond- age 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 recollect, 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 discouragement, he was a^\'are prevailed under a change of day, but simply as dis- charging 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 1 GaL iv. P-11. TESTIMONY Of REVELATION. 321 to the Colossians, and furnishes additional evidence that the obli- gation of observing the seventh day as a sacred day had been an- nulled. The apostle addressing the chui'ch 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 keep- ing 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, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it."^ 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 decides, 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 ? The sacred observance of that day had at one time been the solemn duty of the Jews, frequently pressed on their attention, and en- forced by the promise of valuable blessings to those who dis- charged it, as well as by denunciations of calamity against the disobedient. Now, 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, among 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 ' Rom xiv. 5, 6. X 322 DIVINE AUTHOEITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 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,^ 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 fidfil 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 aff'orded 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 1 Acts ix. 20 ; xiii. 14-16; XTi. 13 ; xvii. 1-3 ; XTiii. 4. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 323 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 the wisdom of this policy, confirms our doctrine of its authoritative abolition. Regard for it died out, and another day rose gradually and peacefidly 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 entitled to the claim of Divine authority 1 The first day of the week was divinely appointed to be the Christian Sabbath. 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 annoimced 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 324 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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 the 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 refeiTed 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 1 Mark xvi. 9.— Avaaras dk irput irpuiTrj cra^^aTOV. The maintainers of the seventh- day Sabbath, by dwellins *^o much on certain idiomatic expresi-ions 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 tlie Lord's day, they endeavour to show that the expression /J-ia. aa^^druv, rendered in our Bibles " 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 evangeUsts call /xla (ra^^druv, the former designates TrpwTTj (ra/3/3droi;, 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 pro- ceed to fulfil their intention till after ttie Sabbath, or seventh day, was over, for it is said. " They rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment " (Luke xxiii. 56), and " in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came to see the sepulchre " (Matt, xxviii. 1), 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. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. d2o 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 ? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts 1 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my- self."^ The scene is thus described by another evangelist : " 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 his 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, and saith unto them, Keceive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."^ 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, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach 1 Luke xxiv. 30, 38, 39. - John xx. 19-23. 326 DIVINE AUTHOEITY OF THE SABBATH. hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing."^ Here 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 weeldy 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 His 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 1 John XX. 26. — From the manner of intimating the time of this meeting with reference to the former, it is inferred that eight complete days must have intervened, and consequently that it did not take place on the day vrhich is observed as the Christian Sabbath. In sup- port of this view, it is attempted to explain away a peculiar phraseology common to the sacred writers, customary with other authors, as well as in the ordinary speech of various nations, and understood by all as exclusive, not inclusive, of parts of the first and last days in the series. Thus when it is said in Luke ii. 21, " And when eight days were accora- jilished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus," the meaning is, not that the child was circumcised on the ninth daj', but on the eighth, the day appointed in the law of Mo.-es. It is repeatedly stated that Christ was to rise from the dead after the third day (Matt, xxvii. 63 ; Mark viii. 31). But Christ is expressly declared to have risen on the third day (Luke xxvii. 7 ; 1 Cor. xv. 4). Jeroboam and Israel were desired by Ilehoboam to come to him after three days (2 Chron. x. 5). Their coming on the third day (ver. 12), proved this to be the day intended. The Romans used the expression, "post pau- cos dies," after a few days, meaning a few days after. A third-day ague was, in Latin phrase, a quartan, one occurring every other day was a tertian. The French call a fortnight, quinze jot'.rs, and a week, hidt jours, or eight days. And it is common with many amongst our- selves to say, " This day eight days," eight days, in fact, if they include the whole of tlie first and last day of the series, but only seven, " This day sen-night," when they count from a certain hour of the first to the corresponding hour of the last. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 327 came together to break bread, or on which the apostle preached to them.^ We may presmne 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."^ 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 pointmg 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 we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came to- gether 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 Avindow 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, 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."^ 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.'"^ " Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye Acts XX. 7. " Ibid. xxi. i, 5. 3 Ibid. xx. 6-] 2. ^ Ibid. x. 27. 328 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come togetlier in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you."^ "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." ^ " Not forsaking the assembling of your- selves together, as the manner of some is."^ Further, they came together " to hreah hread.'" That similar language in Acts xxvii. 35 refers to an ordinary meal, aj^pears 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 meat ;" and, 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 disci^Dles 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 "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." 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 nan*ative 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 1 1 Oor. xi. 17, 18. - Ihid. xiv. 23, 20'. 3 Heb. x. 25. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION, 329 (lifterent custom from that at Ti'oas — 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 ] Let another case embracing a number of churches supply the answer. In the First Ej^istle 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."^ The first day of the week is never mentioned before but as the day of the Redeemer's resurrection, and of religious assemblies and business. These are its only distinctions — the only marks l^y 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,^ Our Lord asserted the doing of good as an appropriate duty of the Sabbath-day. The frequent periodi- 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 1 1 Cor. xvi. 1,2. 2 Deut. xvi. 10. 330 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SABBATH. 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."^ 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 cannot be 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 at 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. 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, OR RATHER AS the iveeMy holy day, without divine AUTHORITY. 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 1 Ki5/3iOS Koi rod (xa^j3drov—Tfj KvpiaK^ W^P^^ a differeot expression from the day of the Lord, i] 7]fx^pa Kvplov. TESTIMONY OF EEVELATION. 331 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 hccid, 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 gTound 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 nothmg 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 devising 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. Third, The abundant provision made for regidating 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 332 T)IVIXE AUTHOEITY OF THE SABBATH. by the Lord Jesus. "^ From several parts of the Xew Testament, we leam 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.- How was it possible, therefore, for them to appoint the churches to assemble for worship on that day, to encoui-age 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 ? 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 ? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."^ 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 fii'st 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. Sij:th, 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 Hls 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, 1 1 The?s. iv. 1. 2. - Acts XT. 24, 28, 29 ; Luke x. 16 ; 1 Cor. xiv. .37; 1 J'..hn iv. 6. - Gal. iv. 9-11. TESTIMONY OF EEVELATION. 333 an event so great in itself, and so fraught with good to mankind. On this day the first Christian sermon ^ras preached ; thousands were converted, the Church was fully formed, and the Lord's sujDper publicly celebrated. It was on the Lord's day that the apostle John was in the Spirit, heard a great voice as of a trampet, saw the glorified Saviour in the midst of the churches, and was commanded 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 prepared 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 e-sidence that the day on which Christians cease from labour and worship their Divine Savioui', is truly the Sabbath of God, the Lord's day ? We have seen the first day of the week to be coaeval with the second and more glorious rest of God, sanctified by Hi^ 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 feet form, and more unceasing flow, the prolongation for ever. 334 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER V. DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. " 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." Nothing is 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 pui'poses 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 aiTangement 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 TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 335 imtainted 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 w^ere 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 wdth 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 ofi". 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 w^as 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 it : 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."i 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. 336 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. they might uninterruptedly prosecute their worldly ^dews and pleasiu-es. That such men as Enoch and Noah, who walked with 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."^ 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. Thus 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 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 ' Exod. XX. 9-11. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 337 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 corn ; 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 that could not be 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 con- trary to the old commandment of resting one day in seven. AVe 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 investigations. We have said, all this 7m(st 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 plea- sure. Y 338 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. Nor are our usual avocations all that ought to he 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 were 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, amusements, entertainments, or convivial enjoyments. 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 welfare, has prescribed rest from 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 first day of the week, and it was not till the Sabbath's sun had set that he proceeded to heal the multitudes of sick that were brought to him.^ 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 1 Here, too, the Author of the Sabbath has evinced his v>^isdom 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 time into that of work and that of rest, that no encroachment must take place on the 1 Luke iv. 18-41. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 339 smaller proportion allotted to tlie latter object. A portion is 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 to be as completely dis- engaged as possible from disturbing work and cares when the time of it arrives, 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. x4.nother 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 happiness. 340 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 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."^ 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 Avhich 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 subordinately, 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 God 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 necessarj^ to his own full happiness, it was 1 Herbert. TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 341 requisite as a duty to his Maker that innocent man should offer a special weekly homage to his Creator, Benefactor, and King, But passing from this period of man's history, as to whicli 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 in 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. This was " in process of time," or at the end of days. As the Sabbath was 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-wor- ship 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 services 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." 342 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. Praise was another part of the public worship. " Praise waiteth for thee, 0 G-od, in Sion." " Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise." Christ sang a hymn with his disci- ples 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 com- mon 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 con- tinued 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 the body of Christ. The apostles preached on 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 oflfering of their substance to the service of God is another duty of the assembled worshippers on the Sabbath. By such contributions w,ere 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 instruc- tions 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, TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. 343 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, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." 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, hut 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. TVe 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." " Sundays observe ; think when the bells do chime, 'Tis angels' music, therefore come not late : God then deals blessings. . . . Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part ; Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither. Christ purged His temple, so must thou thy heart." ^ 1 Herbert's Temple. 344 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. CHAPTER VI. DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. " I was in the 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.^ 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." Keason 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 1 If I be a master, where is my fear 1" 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 sus- pect, it now is, in Scotland, of the observance of worshij) in families three times on the Lord's day. TESTIMONY OF REVELATIOX. 345 SO 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 sacrifices continually for his children ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they journeyed with their families, building altars where- ever they went : David, after engaging in public worship, return- ing to bless his household ; Esther fasting and praying with her maidens ; 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 read- ing 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 Avith 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 chil- dren 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. ^ Hezekiah appears to have had three great objects in view for his remaining life on recovery from sickness — walking 1 Col. iii. 16. -2 Prov. iv. 1-4. 3 46 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. humbly, the praise of God in the temple, and making known Dies Dominica, p. 37, &c. ; Antiq. b. xx. ch. 3. 8 Can. 29, Concil. per Ruel. et Hartman, vol. ill. p. 254. CENTURIES IV. -XV. 395 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." ^ 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.^ 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 under 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." Re- ferring to our Lord's appearing to his disciples when they were met together after his resurrection, Cyril draws this conclusion : " By right, therefore, are holy assemblies held in the churches on the eighth day."^ The Lord's day is by Gregory Nazianzen called "God's own day."^ Augustine declares that "the Lord's day was established by Christ," that " there is one Lord of the Sab- bath and of the Lord's day," that it is " called the Lord's day, because the Lord made it," and that it "seems properly to belong to the Lord." 5 According to Chrysostom, " God from the begin- ning intimates to us the doctrine, that within the compass of a week one whole day is to be set apart to spiritual works." ® In the fifth century, Maximus, Bishop of Turin, Sedulius, and Leo i., 1 Contr. EMon. Hcer. xxx. c. 32. 2 in Gal. iv. 10. 3 Jq Joan, lib. xii. c. 58. < Horn. I, in Pasch. 5 Epist. 86, Young's Dies Domin. p. 71. ^ Horn. 10, in Ge. 396 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. Bishop of Rome, testify to the same truth. We quote the words of Sedulius : — " Cceperat interea post tristia Sabbata fehx Irradiare dies, culmenque nominis alti A Domino dominante trahit, primusque videre Promeruit nasci mundum, atque resurgere Christum. Septima nam Genesis cum dicit Sabbata, claret Hunc orbis caput esse diem, quem gloria regis Nunc etiam proprii donans t'ulgore tropaei, Priniatum retinere dedit." ^ 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.^ To a.d, 601, belongs Hesy- chius, Bishop of Jerusalem, " author of several productions," par- ticularly a commentary on Ijeviticus, in which he says, " Fol- lowing their (the apostles') tradition, we set apart the Lord's day to Divine assemblies;" and expresses the generally received opinion, that the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles was the Lord's day.^ And the venerable Bede, who adorned the eighth century, holds that " the rest of the seventh day, after six days' working, was always wont to be celebrated, and that the Lord's day was the memorial of the Lord's resurrection," ^ 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 re- quired 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."^ 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, 1 De Resur. Carmen, lib. v 2 (ypcra (1C17), p. 396. 8 In Levit. lib. ii. c. 9. * Beda, Lib. de Offic. « Morer On tfie Lord's Day, p. 261. CENTURIES IV. -XV. 397 from the decrees of councils, from the edicts of princes, and the Constitutions of bishops, continued to prevail iu 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. "1 "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."^ 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. 1 1 20, the Fourth is held to be the rule of the Lord's day to Christians.^ The Taborites — the remnant of whom, afterwards joining with a party from the Calixtines, took the name of Bohemian Brethren — main- tained that the fjxithful are not bound to keep any festival but the Lord's day.* After that union, the Brethren took advantage of a re- spite from persecution, about a.d. 1471, for regulating their govern- ment and discipline, when they declared " the observance of the Sabbath to be of moral obligation ; because the seventh day was sanc- tified at the Creation, the Ten Commandments enjoined the Sabbath, and in the days of the apostles the Lord's day was appointed in- stead of the Jewish Sabbath, and therefore was not ceremonial,"^ 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. We see what idea of the sacredness of the day Athanasius entertained, when he described " a multitude • Oprra (1G12), Ennr. in Ayioc. i. 10. 2 cited in Young's Dvs Domin., p. 46. 8 Blair's Hist, of Waldemes, vol. i. p. 220. * M'Rie's Miscdl. Writings, p. 1(52. ** Blair's Waldenses, vol. ii. p. 109. 398 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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 exercise yourselves more entirely in Divine matters. "2 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 Scriptures, and call together the family, wife and children, to confer about the things that have been spoken, and after they have been more deeply and thoroughly impressed upon the mind, then proceed to attend to such matters as are necessary for this life."^ 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 men- tion the incompatibility of such a recommendation 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 toils ;"* and holds abstinence from worldly affairs on the day to be " an immoveable law."* To these might be added a variety of state- ments by the Fathers, which imply their conviction 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 variety 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 medita- tions, as when we use holy hymns instead of tabors, and psalms 1 Histor. Tracts (Oxford, 1843), p. 192. 2 Lib. viii. c. 5. In Joan. ' Horn. 5, in Matt. * Horn. 43, in 1 Cor. xvi. 1. 6 fjom. 5, in Matt. CENTUEIES IV. -XV. 399 instead of wicked songs and dancings."^ Opposed though Augus- tine was to secular work, he was still more averse to the indul- gence of worldly pleasure on the Lord's day. His saying, "It 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. "2 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."^ The same spirit breathes in the words of Basil, Gregory Nazian- zen, and Chrysostom. The Bishop of Csesarea, having given as a reason for the practice of standing in prayer on the Lord's day, not only that Christians are risen together with Christ, but that the day seems in some measure an image of the world to come, adds : " The Church instructs her disciples to off'er 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."^ 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."^ " The Sabbath," remarks Chrysostom, " is not a day of idleness, but of spiritual action."g 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 difl'erent doctrines, Augustine does not hesitate to re- pel with the assertion, " The doctrine was the same, the diff'erence respected only the time." 7 Passing to later centuries, we find that such views continued to be held. Csesarius, Bishop of Aries, 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."8 The testimony of Columlja 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 1 Quoted by Twisse in Mor. of the Fourth Commandment, p. 173. " In Ps. xcii. 8 Ad Casul., Epist. 86. « Be Spirit. Sanct. c. 27. 6 Orat. 38. 6 De Laz. Cone. 1. 7 Contr. Faust, lib. xvi. c. 28. 8 /fom. 12. 400 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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." i 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. "^ Aquinas held that " such a day was appointed not for play, but for praise and prayer."^ And in harmony on this subject, with good men of 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, \st, In thinking, — how God isAlmighty, All-knowing, AU-good, All- just, All-mercifid — 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 an exhortation to his reader, to " bethink" him of redemption, with the words, " It should be full sweet and delightful to us, to think thus on this gi-eat kindness, and this great love of Jesus Christ." 2d, In speeding, — 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. Sd, In carefidly attending pithlic wor- ship,— preparing for it by endeavouring to bring to it pure motives, and by avoiding iudidgence 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 life, by Adarana (1857), p. 230. 2 opera, p. 396. 3 Oimsc. Dc Prac. 10. * Jraity and Treatises of John de WycVffi, pp. 4-6. CENTURIES IV. -XV. 401 SECTION IV. THE SABBATH IN CENTURIES IN .-KY .—{Contimied.) ECCLESIASTICAL MEASURES. 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, concur with contemporary writings in showing that the institution continued to be generally regarded as of Divine appointment and sacred ob- ligation. 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, 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 ecclesiastics, and from the number as well as from the character of the members, their canons may be considered as among the best means of ascertain- ing the state of opinion at their respective dates. To these collec- tive indications of the general doctrine respecting the institution, and to the united measures adopted to promote its better observ- ance, we have to add the services rendered in both respects to its cause by the ministers of religion 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 2 c 402 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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 cut off from communion.^ 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 such particulars as that the hearers should remain to the close of the service. Secular Ictbour on the Lord's day was inhibited. Husbandry in its various operations, all mechanical works, merchandise, and unnecessary travelling, were forbidden. Legal proceedings must " cease and determine." No folkmote or political assembly musi hold. Marriages were not to be solemnized, criminals were not tc be executed. In a word, persons, of whatever country or quality, were required to forbear servile work, that they might have lei- sure for the worship of God. Worlclhj amusements, moreover, were condemned. We meet with frequent denunciations against the exhil3itions 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 wdiatever 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 ()t furthered the positive 1 Our facts have been derived from several works on the councils ; but to save a mul- titude of references, we may state, that in Neale's Fiasfs mui Faf:ts, and Morer on the Lord' Bap, may be found the chief heads of what relates to our subject, with the authorities. CENTURIES IV.-XV. 40o 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 v/e 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 diiy. The bishops assembled at Friuli, in Italy, thus resolved : <' That all people shall with due reverence and devotion honour the Lord's day, be- ginning on the evening of the day before, and that thereon they more especially abstain from all kinds of sin, as also from all car- nal acts, and secular labours : and that they go to church in a grave manner, laying aside all suits of law and controversies, which might hinder their praising God's name together." The good men of those days were urgent, if not always wise, in tJie 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 ofleuders, proved at least their conviction of the enormity of the oflence. 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 404 THE SABBATH IX HISTOEY. rest of the Lord\s resurrection," when tliey remind them of the Divine example, and when, with Bishop Kiculphus, 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 decreee, 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 oflfices for God's honour, and the good of his own soul, and theirs belonging to him." 'Not was it forgotten to warn Christians against a formal and supe7'stitious Sabbat ism. While they were to abstain from rural works, and this world's and their 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 to ride, to dress ^dctuals, 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 husbanchry, who were allowed to attend to the work of their calling. In June of the same year he renewed the order, CEXTUEIES IV.-XV. 40.) 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 iustmcted 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 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 intervemng reigns of his three sons, his nephew, Julian, ascended the throne, and proceeded to restore idolatry. Even he, as we have had repeated occasion to remark, gave evidence, however unwittingly, in favour of Christian- ity and its weekly holy day, by introducing into his Pagan system improvements boiTowed from the Christian worship. The following emperors — Valentini;\n, Gratian, Valentinian n., and Honorius, in the west, with Yalens, Theodosius the Great, Arca«.lius, Theodo- 406 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. riius II., in the east — issued edicts, designed respectively 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 daj^ 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 an- niversaries 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 gi'eat God and his mercies to mankind are most devoutly celebrated." The Emperors Leo and Anthemius (a.d. 4 GO) prohibited worldly pleasures, as well as law proceedings, 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, several kings of France, Ina, king of the West Saxons, and Withred, king of Kent, all having for their object to prevent the desecration of the day of rest by secular business or labour. Charlemagne, 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 occa- sions 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 on this day he be- stowed 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 reve- rence of this day." Alfred the Great was the ornament of the closing years of the CENTUEIES IV. -XV. '407 ninth century, as Charlemagne was the distinction of its com- mencement, and of the latter part of the preceding. One of his laws, in 876, while appointing penalties for ofiences 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 century 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 a shadow of ours, are not we, who inhabit light and the truth of gTace, obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured, and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death I Are not we bound 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 .•e do on others 1"^ Athelstan and Edgar, Edward the Elder, and the Emperor Otho, in the tenth century ; Ethelred, Canute, ind Edward the Confessor, in the eleventh ; Manuel Comnenus and Henry ii., in the tvv^elfth ; the Parliament at Scone and Henry iii., in the thirteenth ; Edward in. in the fourteenth ; and Henry vi., with Edward iv., 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 Cat worth, 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 no manner of com- modities be within the freedom bought or sold on Lord's days, 1 Plevlyn's IlUt. of the Sab., Part ii. p. 140. 408 THE SABBATH IN HISTOKY. 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. 30G), Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, informs us, that the Christians did not kneel in prayer on the Lord's day, as that was a day of rejoicing, because on it Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.^ 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 ser- vices 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.^ Fast- ing, 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 excepting 1 Dupin's Ecel. Writers, vol. ii. p. 26. " Neale's Feasts and Fasts, p. 101. CENTUKIES IV. -XV. 409 the Lord's days from the period of fasting, whatever might be its length. 1 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 manilbld 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 Church were often engaged in framing canons for its better observance. Authors commended it to their readers. The pul- pit poured out eloquent tributes to its excellence, and urgent appeals on its behalf Princes and inferior magistrates acknow- ledged its Di^dne claims, and felt its value as a beneficent insti- tution. 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 chas- tisement, deprived of patrimony, or reduced 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 apparition said to be seen by Henry ii. 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 suc- ceed in all his affairs, and of his misfortunes 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 connected Avith human prosper- ity and happiness. The same lesson is taught by the case of Eustachius, Abbot de Flay, in the following century. This ardent 1 JCeale's Feasts and Fasts, p. 311. 410 THE SAEBATH IX HISTORY. person preached from city to city, and from place to place, through- out 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 tlie practice, led the king and council to cite and fine them for dis- orderly proceedings. The Abbot, then, produced what he called a mandate from Heaven for the strict observance of the Lord's day, in which various calamities were denounced on those who did not keep that day and the festivals of the saints. The same war- rant was produced and read in a Scottish Council of a.d. 1203, when the King, with consent of liis 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 Uke, 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 iii. in a Parlia- ment at Scone in 1214, and confirmed afterwards by James i., the prohibition of such work being limited to the time between the evening of Saturday and sunrise of Monday. We have been pleading certain facts as, notwithstanding tlie 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. Hohdays have no warrant in Scripture, and have contributed sacUy to fos- ter 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 trae holy day. It was in the more advanced stage of human fes- tivals and feasts that a class arose, who made use of them for up- holding despotism and an overbearing hierai'chy, and for attempt- ing 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 pleasiu:e in the duties of a stated season of worship, sought, in the multiplication of memorial times, and of their at- tendant devotions, to do honour to the birth, death, and ascension, as had been done to the resurrection of Christ, and to augment CENTURIES IV. -XV. 411 their own spiritual advantage and pleasure. This was well meant, 1 .ut it involved the great error of being wise above what is written — the evil of being righteous overmuch. It was a testimony, how- ever, to the heavenly and good institution, as the counterfeit is t(» the genuine and valuable coin. Tiie doctrine of Divine judgments, as attending the violation (jf 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. ^ Pope Eu- genius, observing 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 olfenders, and desire them to go to churcli and offer prayers, lest otherwise they might bring some great ca- lamity on themselves and others." The Pope had a conviction 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 ; "wliicli," 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 mstitution. 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- 1 Hejlyn's Hist of the Sab., Pan ii. pp 113, 114. 412 THE SABBATH IN HIiSTORY. 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 pecu- liar regard which was entertained for the sacred season. The Emperors Leo and Artemius 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 solenmly 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 lay " which God hath named for his service, and which it were a reckless sliditins; and contemning; of all religion to make OBSEEVANCE. 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 wTong, 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 necessary, 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 CENTUEIES IV.-XV. 413 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 Foeni- t€7itic(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."^ 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 dur- ing the contests concerning image-worship, society was strict in all religious observances, and great attention was paid to Sunday."^ 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 Avord, is enjoined " in the law of God.^ We are furnished with information respecting their morals by Beinerus Sacco, an apostate from their church, and a Jacobin 1 Morer On the Lord's Bay, pp. 270, 271. =* Finlay's B'lzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 311. 3 Blair's Waldenses. vol. i. p. 220. 414 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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 not multiply riches, but are content with necessaries. They are also chaste, especially the Leonists. They are temperate in eating and driukiug. They do not go to taverns, nor to dancings, nor to other vanities. They restrain themselves from anger. . . . They avoid scurrility, detraction, levity of conversation, lying and swear- ing."^ 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 administered to him before the assembled barbes, in this form, " Thou, such a one, swearest on thy faith to maintain, multiply, and increase 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 obsei-ve the Lord's day, and that thou wilt not 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 se3- est."^ 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."^ 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."^ They made a distinc- tion between the Sabbath and the other days ; the former being 1 Blair's Waldfnses, toI. i. pp. 408, 412. 2 jii(j^ vol. ii. p. 157. s Ibid. Tol. ii. p. 109. * Ibid. p. 110. CENTUEIES [V.-XV. 415 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."^ From the facts set forth in this and two preceding sections, it appears that for fifteen centuries the firet 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 be^n immacu- late. There have been writers — Dr. Heylyn, for example — who 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 jDre- vailing evil betrayed any inefliciency 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- 1 Bruce's^«. Sccul.^ p. 202. 416 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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, iu the case before us, crippled though it was, not only maintained its ground amidst such elements of destruction, but for so long a time prevented the entire over- throw of the religious and social edifice. THE EEFORMATION. 417 SECTION Y. THE SABBATH AT THE REFORMATION. In the controversy respecting a weekly holy 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, 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 Luther, Cal- vin, and their associates, are entitled to our admiration for their learning, piety, and zeal, and to our gratitude for the services which they rendered to all the interests of mankind, it must be re- collected that their sentiments do not on this or on any other point amount to a test of truth. It is not, however, inconsistent 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 inter- pretation of the sacred oracles. The friends of the Sabbath, in particular, must be gratified by the persuasion, that such men have vindicated for themselves a place in the " great cloud of witnesses " for the Divine origin, perpetual sacredness, and indispensable value of that blessed institution. Let us, therefore, inquire what were the views on this subject of the distinguished persons by whose instru- mentality our deliverance from Papal bondage was accomplished. No one, we believe, will deny that the following things are neces- sary to our forming a right estimate of the Sabbatic creed of the Re- formers. First, That their opinions be fairly stated. It is possible 2 D 418 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. that on both sides of the controversy there may be writers who, in searching for passages that favour their ov/n views and wishes, unin- tentionally omit those of a different description. Such a method of leading evidence, if it cannot be pronounced in their case to be wrong in morals, and indefensible in logic, unless we are sure that it was knowingly resorted to, betrays at least a carelessness which proves their unfitness for their task. We are willing to place in this cate- gory a number of works of recent date, in which certain strong and peculiar statements of the Eeformers appear, while much clearer and more decisive declarations, containing nearly all the received doctrines on the Sabbath, are excluded. It is especially painful to find Dr. Hengstenberg chargeable with this conduct, the more so that the influence of his name imparts greater currency and power to the injury and wrong. Second, That there be due consi- deration of the limited opportunities and means which the Re- formers had for examining and discussing the subject. The Great Apostasy has ever been a perversion, not an open renunciation of Christianity — " a noble vine," not rooted up, but " turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine." Rome, professing to re- tain, has yet corrupted every doctrine, institution, and law of Jesus Christ — recognising, for example, the Mediator between God and men, but associating with Him many other intercessors ; avowing adherence to the Scripture, but to the Scripture as supplemented and made void by the writings and traditions of men ; and, in short, without discarding the Lord's day, adding a number of encumbering holidays, giving them in many instances an honour equal and even superior to God's own day, and claiming for " the Vicar of Christ " lordship " even of the Sabbath." It was thus with arrogant claims, and gross abuses, aff'ecting the Lord's day, not with the open denial of its authority, or rejection of its sacred character, that the Reformers had to grapple. The latter subjects formed no part of their controversy with Rome, and, indeed, had never come under discussion to any extent in the Church. Their circum- stances did not call them particularly and critically to consider the general question, and, judging from the small space allowed to the weekly holy day in their works, as well as from their occasional manner of writing respecting it, the institution appears to have received less than most other points in theology of their careful THE EEFOEMATION. 419 attention. They knew it in their Christian love and practice more than as a doctrine. The heats, besides, and the turmoils of a great revolution, were not the most favourable state in which calmly to weigh and adjust a system of truth. And when long- continued, deep-seated, and wide-spread evils had to be remedied, much of the work of reformation was necessarily left by the origi- nators to those who should come after them. Such considerations might guard us against the mistake of supposing that Luther and Calvin had clearer views of the Sabbatic institution than its friends in later times, and of attaching the whole weight of honour acquired by them in other fields of labour and prowess, to their sayings and doings on an arena where they had not put forth their might. Third, That the state of the institution in the Church which they sought to reform be taken into account. It was the confession of Roman Catholic writers themselves, that the Church had, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, reached a mea- sure of corruption wdiich rendered her incapable of bearing either her disorders or the remedies. One of her intolerable disorders was that of holidays, which, begun early, was now nearly at its worst. Pious, but misguided zeal, as we have already seen, introduced stated feasts and fasts. In Constantine's tampering with the Fourth Commandment, by permitting agricultural labour on the Lord's day, and ordering the observance of certain holidays, we discover the germ of bolder assumptions afterwards made by the Papacy when it sought to change the times and laws of the Most High. The greater festivals were promoted to the rank of Sabbath-days. Then, as by Bernard, all other holy days were lield, equally with the only true holy day, to be grounded upon the Divine law. The next step, of which we have an instance in an edict of Edward iv. of England, was to sink in the general class of such days the Lord's day. In t]ie same century (the fifteenth) the seasons of rest from labour had so multiiDlied, and been the occasions of so much profligacy and riot, as to excite the alarm and remonstrances of thoughtfid men, only, however, to be disregarded by the Popes, who " did not only keep the holidays, which they found established, in the state in which they found them, but added others daily as they saw occasion."^ " The third 1 Hevlyn's liht. of the Sab., Part ii. p. 168. 420 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. part of the year^" in consequence, " passed away in idle festivals."' The Sabbath, than which, as in a former part of this volume has been shown, nothing tends more to the moral and monetary good of society, was prostituted into a means of general demoralization and poverty. That day, designed and fitted to be a season of wor- ship and religious instruction, was, from its uncongenial connexion with so many unhallowed festivals, compelled to serve in the cause of profaneness, infidelity, and vice. It was found easier and more pleasant, by priests and people, to spend a multitude of consecrated days in attending on processions and the mass, than in the labours of teaching and learning Divine knowledge. What was worse, holidays came to be regarded as the whole of man's salvation and sanctity. They were considered as holy in them- selves, and as rendering sacred what was done on them. The doctrine of grace, according to the Augsburg Confession, " is almost wholly smothered by traditions, which have bred an opinion, that, by making diff'erence in meats, and such like ser- vices, a man must merit remission of sins and justification. In their doctrine of repentance there was no mention of faith, only these satisfactory works were spoken of ; repentance seemed to stand wholly in these. Secondly, these traditions obscured the commandments of God that they could not be known, because that traditions were preferred far above the commandments of God. All Christianity was thought to be an observation of certain holy days, rites, fasts, and attire."^ Ochin says, " If thou wouldest ask at what time God ought to be loved, they [the Papists] will answer, on the Sabbath and festival days." " For observing the first and chief est commandment of the law, it is sufiicient that, at the least the twinkling of an eye, upon the Sabbath-day, we have in us some act of love towards God, with exalting Him above all things ; and that this, through our most [sicj and mighty free will, is always in our power. "^ Men's minds were thus turned away from the means of salvation, and from the study and practice of true religion, into the endless and perplexing labyrinth of a vast system of casuistry relating to 1 Beza, On Song of Solomon, Ser. 8 on ch. iii. - HaU's Harmony of Confessions, p. 397. 3 Sennons, quoted in James's Sermons on the Sacraments, pp. 218, 219. THE REFORMATION. 421 meats, drinks, days, and " the putting on of apparel ;" and " many fell into despair, some murdering themselves because they could not keep the traditions."^ The design of the Papacy in the whole matter was to promote its own ascendency, and to fill its coffers, " the monks daily heaping up ceremonies, both with new superstitions, and also with new ways to bring in money." And to bind down and perpetuate these burdens on the minds and consciences of men, it was taught and believed, that " Christ gave the charge of devising new ceremonies, which should be necessary to salvation, to the apostles and bishops." ^ From this the tran- sition was easy to the daring, blasphemous dogma, that the bishops, by virtue of this authority, had " dispensed with a precept of the Moral Law, and changed the Sabbath into the Lord's day."^ Such, while the institution was professedly maintained and honoured, were the evils by which its rights were invaded, and its influence was impaired. Trained under such a system, how could it be supposed that the Reformers should retain no taint of its errors ? and yet, exasperated at the enormities which they had discovered, how could they be expected to avoid every extreme in the opposite direction ? Such views would imply them to be more than human. 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."* "Natural reason doth know that there is an order ; and the imderstanding 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."^ " Although religion be not tied unto time, yet it cannot be planted and exercised without • Hall's Harmony of Confessions, 398. 2 /jj^f. p 401. 3 jbid. * Ibid. p. 401. 5 Ibid. 402. 422 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. a due dividing and allotting out of time unto it." " Except some due time and leisure were allotted to the outward exercise of re- ligion, without doubt men would be quite drawn from it by their own affairs." These passages teach us that the Lutheran and Ke- formed Churches were agreed as to the propriety, and the neces- sity to the ends of religion, of certain times being set apart for its exercises and study. The Reformers individually apply these 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."^ 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 Dominicusyi 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."^ The observance of it comprises in it all religion : " Under the observance of the Sabbath is com- prehended the sum of all piety. "^ The neglect of it indicates the destitution and the contempt of Christian blessings : " And here- by 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 V'^ 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."^ The obser- 1 Quoted in Fairbaim's Typol., toI. ii. p. 467. 2 gge p. 26 of this vol., 'note. 3 Comment, on Exod xx 8-11. * Comment, on Exod. xtI. 28. 5 Ser. 34 on Deut. t. 6 On Deut v. Ser. 34. THE KEFOEMATION. 423 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."i " The city will be safe, if God be truly and devoutly worshipped, and this is attested by the sanctification of the Sabbath."^ 2. The sacred observance of the first day of the week was a duty which the leaders of the Reformation 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 transgressors. Four preachers and two deacons were appointed, and a school was esta- blished. Farel published a short formulary of belief, consisting of twenty-one articles, and was probably associated in this with Cal- vin, who published a catechism in French. "3 What a disciplinarian Calvin was, and how he laboured by unwearied preaching and writing to enlighten and reform the Genevese, 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 haTe been indus- triously 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.""^ " 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 hidding farewell to one and all of our oivn employments, so that God may reign in us, then of employing ourselves in the worship of God."^ " Every man," he remarks, as a reason why Christians should not go to law upon the Lord's day, 1 On John v. 17. 2 On Jer. xvii. 3 Life and Times of John Calvin, vol. i. p. 112. * Ser. 34, Deut. v. s md. 424 THE SABBATH IN HISTOEY. " ought to withdraw himself from everything hut the consideration of God and His works, that all men may be stirred up to serve and honour Him." i 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 1 Is not this an unhallowing of his name V ^ Peter Viret, his colleague, 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 neighbours."^ The friend of Calvin, as well as of Luther, Bucer, referring to the service of God as required on the Lord's day above all others, gives utterance to these earnest words ; " Let our manners 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 assem- blies of the Church, and has heard the word of God with a sin- cere 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?"^ Zuinglius, Bullinger, who succeeded him in his pastoral charge, CEcolampadius, 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 necessary, 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 aU cannot command every day ; and nature also requires that one day in the week should be kept quiet, with- out labour either for man or beast. "^ Even when, in the vehe- mence 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 1 Ser. 93 on Deut. v. 2 yer. 34 on Deut. v. 3 On Fourth Commandment. * In Matt. xii. 11. , ^ Fairbairn, as before. ^ Coleridge's Table Tal,k,i\. 315. THE REFORMATION. 425 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 to hear God'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." ^ 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." ^ And again, " Christ by his example doth show how the time be- tween the public assemblies ought to be devoted to spiritual im- provement, for after he had taught in public, and the assembly was dismissed, he privately examined and further instructed his disciples." ^ These last words remind us that the Reformers, 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 through- out. " 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 God ;" and, 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."^ 3. The lessons which the Reformers 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 1 De Reg. Christ, lib. i. c. 11. 2 Exam. Be Biebus Festis. 3 Ibid. * On Deut. v. Ser. 34. 426 THE SABBATH IN HISTOEY. Sabbath desecration as became general in later times, was for a considerable period unknown in the Lutheran Church. Plitt, of 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."^ On this subject Cal- vin 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." ^ " 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 com- mandeth, 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 for all time. 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 concern- ing the will and worship of God, and rendered to Him praise, thanksgiving, and offerings. On other days, he should have cul- tivated 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." * 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 1 In Rclicj. Condit. of Christendom (1852), p. iCS. - Instit on Fourth Comnuindment. 8 Sermon 34 on Deut. t. * Lutheri Oi^era (M.D.L.), torn. v. p. 23. THE REFORMATION. 427 of gi'avity and elegancy, among those excellent lights of mankind, whenas in the same garden or cottage there sat together Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and their families ; and whenas, that sermon which Shem made concerning the true God, the son of God, the distinction of the Church and other nations, being heard, after- ward they together used invocation."^ In expounding Exodus XX, 8, Calvin has these words : "Unquestionably, 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 prohibition to gather manna on the seventh day, seems to imply the received knowledge and use of the Sabbath, and that it is incredible 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 Gen. ii. 3 : " God, therefore, first rested, then blessed this rest, that in all ages it might he sacred among men ; in other words, He consecrated every seventh day to rest, that His oion exami^le might he a perpetual ride.'''' 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 an- notations on Rev, i, 10, observes, that "the seventh day having stood from the creation of the world to the resurrection 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 mentioning the reasons for the institution, remarks, " As these relate to no definite period, but to all times and ages of the world, it follows that God would have men bound from the beginning of the world even to its end to keep a certain Sabbath." With such views of a primal Sabbath, the Reformers could not but regard it as in substance perpetuated in the Jewish weekly 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 J Hall's Harmony of Confessions, p. 402. 428 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. a 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. In like manner, their views respecting the early appointment of the weekly day of rest fully committed the Reformers to the doc- trine 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 regularly ob- served 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 word 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."^ In the same Confession it is declared, " As for Popish visiting with the ex- treme unction, we have said before that we do not like of it, be- cause it hath many absurd things in it, and such as be not approved by the canonical scriptures." ^ On the fast of Lent, the Confes- sion of Wirtemburg 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." ^ We have seen, in an early part of this volume, that holidays were en- tirely rejected by the Scottish Reformers, because they " had no in- stitution ;" 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 J llaXVs, Harmony of Confessions, p. 383. 2 7^,;^. p. 355. 3 jud. p. 403. THE REFORMATION. 429 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 Conrad, — "had re- established in Geneva the following festivals : — the circumcision, 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 generally attri- buted, 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."^ 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 Catho- lic 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 com- mon 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. ^ 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- 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. 1 Vol. ii. p. 115. 2 John Haller, "of the illustrious family of that name," was pastor of the Bernese Church.— Bonnet, in hi? Letters of Calvin, vol. ii. p. 235, note. 430 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. At noon every one was to return to his usual occupations. Christmas-day was the only festival retained. The Council, how- ever, without asking him, abolished, in 1551, all the attendant solemnities."^ Although, then, particular expressions have been conceived 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 by them, to displace the Lord's day. The charge preferred by Barclay agaiiist Calvin, that " he had a consultation once as to transferring the Lord's day observances 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 expected to carry himself truly and honestly towards John Calvin." ^ 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 estabUsh 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 purposes was prescribed at the creation for the human race in their succes- sive generations. They at the same time believed that all obli- gation to observe Saturday as a Sabbath had ceased. The ques- tion, then, to be determined was. On what other day are we to enjoy the indispensable rest and worship of a weekly holy day — on what day are we to be favoured with the provisions, and to fulfil the enduring appointment of Paradise ? 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 1 Vol. i. p. 418. 2 Jijoral. of Fourth Com., p. 35. THE REFORMATION. 431 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."^ " The general rule," as we read in the Con- fession of Augsburg, " abideth still in the moral law, that at cer- tain times we should come together to these godly exercises ; but the special day, which was but a ceremony, is free. Whereupon the apostles retained not the seventh day, but did rather take the first day of the weeh for that use, that by it they might admonish the godly both of their liberty, and of Christ's resurrection. "^ 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 downr^ 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 consecra- ted 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."^ " The which [the true] Church, though it be manifest to the eyes of God alone, yet is it not only seen and known, by certain outward rites, instituted of Christ himself, and by the Word of God, as by a public and lawful discipline ; 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."^ " Con- 1 Hall's Harmony of Confessions, p. 485. 2 jhid. p. 430. 3 Ibid. p. 217. * Ibid. p. 382. 5 Ibid. p. 217. 432 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. secrated 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 on this account" — the resurrection of Christ — "have changed the day."^ 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."^ The apostles must have been Calvin's " an- cients" 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."^ If Calvin had represented Christians as substituting 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 prescrib- ing 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, where- on to collect their contributions in aid of their brethren in Jeru- salem."^ We have found Beza affirming, that the first day of the new world was adopted by the apostles in place of the seventh day, " doubtless at the dictation of the Holy Sinrit.'''' In words similar to those of Beza, both Gallasius (Nicolas des Gallars), one of the ministers of Geneva, and Faius, a successor of Calvin, as- cribe the change of day to the Holy Spirit.^ The latter adds, " The observance 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 Sabbath. They considered 1 Wells' Practical Salhatarian, p. 612. 2 D(> ji^i,, Christ. lib. i. c. 11. 3 Instit. Fourth Commandment. * Ibid. 5 In Esod. xxxi. Pisput. 47, in 4 Legis Pracept. THE REFORMATION. 433 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 ob- tain a Christian view of that which God requires of us in this commandment, observe that we keep a festival." He then refers to two objects of the institution applying to our times, the pro- vision of rest for the children of toil, and of time and opportunity to men in general, such as they could not otherwise have, for at- tending to religion.^ The ideas of Calvin on the subject are thus exjDressed : " The ancients are accustomed to call the fourth pre- cept 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 com- manded to us without shadows : First, that we aim at a perpetual resting from our works during the whole of life, that God may work in us by his Spirit. Again, that every one should diligently exercise himself in 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."^ 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 1 In his Larger Catechism. 2 insWut. on Fourth Tree. 2 E 434 THE SABBATH IX HISTORY. [the Jews]. For, let us take God's law in itself, and we shall have an everlasting rule of righteousness. And, doubtless, 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 needless for us : not because the figure remaineth still in force, but because we have the truth thereof"^ We need add nothing more than that the Reformers were all pledged by the Pormularies 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 Com- mandment, is " a perpetual rule to mankind."^ 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 re- gards the spirit of the law, which always remains, it eminently re- spects 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 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 neighbours. Love, therefore, will teach us, when to labour, when to keep holy day. For love never fails."^ In another place, referring to per- sons who betray their folly and ignorance by " babbling about ceremonies," and " afl&rming that the Sabbath is one of them," he says, " The Sabbath is established by the first two and chief com- mands of God, which constitute the foundation and basis, as it were, of all laws and of the prophets. The authority of the first ^ Ser. 34 on Deut. v. 2 See Statements in Hall's Harmony, of latter Helvetic Confession, p. 109, of French, p. 113, of Belgian, p. 114, and of Augustan, p. 178. =^ In Epist. ad Coloss. c. ii. torn. iv. p. 515. THE REFORMATION. 435 command, or love to God, conjoins witli 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 Ko- 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. "^ 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. Iviii.) 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 bodies (for which reason the night also has been made for the use of men), for that which is without alternate repose is not enduring. "2 It is to be regretted that Knox, than wtom 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- 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 summaiy 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 1 Oper. torn. i. pp. 253, 254. 2 la ilatt. xii. torn. iv. p. 59. 436 THE SABBATH 11^ HISTORY. utterly to be abolished forth of this realm, because they have no assurance in God's Word ;" and second, the following injunction re- lative 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 Ar- ticles, 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 pro- bably— at the meetings of 1562 and 1566 certainly — Knox was present, and must have been, as he was in everything that re- spected the welfare of the Scottish Church, the leader in the pro- ceedings. 5. While the Reformers thus believed the Sabbath to be of Divine and perpetual obligation, regarded it as supremely important, and enforced as well as exemplified its sacred observance, it is not denied that they sometimes employed expressions respecting it which have given occasion and some plausibleness to the charge of hostility to the institution. This is the more to be regretted that their unguarded language must have been often recited, as we have seen it has repeatedly been printed, unaccompanied by their better utterances on the subject, and that many, in such a case, do not trouble themselves to inquire into the circumstances in which the writers were placed, so as to understand the proper import and value of their statements. It is the opinion of Dr. THE KEfOEMATIOi;. 437 Fairbairn, who has fully and carefully examined the whole matter, that they were substantially sound upon the question, in so far as concerns the obligations and practice of Christians, and it will be a satisfaction to us, if, under the following heads, we can ad- vance any facts or considerations for confirming the opinion. In the first place, the words of the Keformers have been in some instances misunderstood. Let us give an example from a passage in the Institutions of Calvin, who says, " Nor do I so value the septenary number as to bind the Church to its servitude, nor shall I condemn the churches which observe other days for their meetings, provided they avoid superstition, which they will do if they only observe the day from regard to discipline and good order. . . . Thus vanish the trifles of false teachers who have in former days imbued the people with Judaical notions, alleging that only what w^as ceremonial in this commandment was abrogated, that is, the appointment of the seventh da}^, and that what was moral, or the observance of one day in seven, remained. But that is nothing else than to change the day in reproach of the Jews, and yet to retain the same holiness of a day, forasmuch as there con- tinues among us the same mystery in the meaning of days that prevailed among the Jews. And verily we see what they have made by such doctrine who adhere to their constitutions, and thrice surpass the Jews in the gross, carnal, superstition of Sabbatism, so that the rebukes of Isaiah (Isa. i. 13 ; Iviii. 13) are no less applicable to the men of our day than to those whom he censured in his own time." ^ That when he said he would not restrict the Church to the number seven, or condemn the churches which ob- served other days for their meetings, he meant that he would not diminish but increase the opportunities of worship, and would add to, not change, the day of the hitherto observed Sabbath, is manifest from his very words, not to say from his practice, and from all that he elsewhere advances respecting a perpetual seventh day of rest, the duties divinely assigned to it, and its vast importance. He will admit of superadded days of worship, but not supersti- tious holidays. In the second part of the quotation, he has been erroneously supposed to deny the morality of a septenary rest. This supposition would make him contradict what he has re-. ^ On Fourth Commandment. 438 THE SABBATH IIST HISTORY. peatedly affirmed of the Divine example of resting at the Creation as a perpetual rule, and of the Fourth Commandment as an ever- lasting law of righteousness to mankind. In the words referred to, however, he assails not a seventh day, but a fancied change of one seventh day of Jewish observance into another seventh day of Jewish observance ; a change made under colour, that by keeping the proportion of time they honoured the morality of the institu- tion, while, in fact, they carried along with them the ceremonial character of the old Sabbath. To substitute the first for the seventh day in such circumstances was merely to put a slight on the Jewish day, not to turn Jewish into Christian practice. He concludes his remarks thus : " But the general doctrine is prin- cipally to be maintained, lest religion should fall or languish, that sacred assemblies are to be diligently observed, and attention given to the external aids which foster the worship of God." The amount of the whole is, that the seventh proportion of time is not to be regarded as something in itself holy, or to be observed with superstitious feelings and forms, but to be employed in spiritual exercises, and for furthering piety as the business of the whole life. Our remark applies also to a few expressions which, common to the Reformers in general, sound strangely to ears trained to the distinct sounds emitted on our subject by the Puritans of England and the Reformers and Covenanters of Scotland. " It was not without a reason that the ancients substituted what we call the Lord's day for the Sabbath." (Calvin in Institutions.) " The Church did appoint the Lord's day, which day for this cause also seemed to have better liked the Church, that in it men might have an example of Christian liberty, and might know that the observance neither of the Sabbath, nor of any other day, was of necessity." (Augsburg Confession.) " For we believe neither that one day is holier than another, nor that rest by itself is acceptable to God, but yet we keep the Lord's day, not the Sabbath, by a voluntary observance." (Helvetic Confession.) " They did not desist from manual labour on the ground of its interfering with sacred study and meditation, but from a sort of religious obligation, because they dreamed that by ceasing from work they revived mysteries which were at one time authorized." THE REFORMATION. 439 (Calvin, Institutions.) It is manifest, not only from the doctrines already shown to have been held by the Reformers, as Avell as from their whole conduct, but also from their plain statements already adduced, that the liberty claimed by them as to times was a freedom not from the keeping of a day of holy rest, but from the yoke of ancient ceremonies, from that yoke particularly, as wreathed round the necks of Christians by Rome, and held ne- cessary to be worn by them if they would be saved ; and that when they say, " The Church chose a day," or " such a thing liked the Church j" they are not to be understood as denying the appointment of the Lord's day to have been made by Christ. Thus, in words already quoted, the Augsburg Confession says, " The general rule 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, was free." But did Chris- tians determine what day they were to sanctify 1 Let the Con- fession declare that Luther and his friends had no such idea, for it adds : " Whereupon 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 admonish the godly both of their liberty and of Christ's resurrection." While the Helvetic Confession states : "We keep the Lord's day, not the Sabbath, by a voluntary observance," and "every Church chooses for itself a certain time for public prayer and the preaching of the gospel," it declares, "that the Lord's day was devoted to religious meetings and sacred leisure, even as early as the times of the apostles, and that it is not left free to every one capriciously to overturn this arrangement of the Church." John Knox himself — ^whose love and reverence for the Lord's day are written in the First Book of Discipline ; in the Acts of the early Assemblies of his Church, which repudiated holydays, and testified against the desecration of the holy day ; and in three cen- turies' history of his country — has been represented as conceiving " the Sabbath to have been an exclusively Jewish institution, and never meant for this advanced dispensation ;" and this on the grounds, that there is no express mention of the sanctification of the Sabbath in the Confession of Faith, which he with otliers drew up [the substance, however, is there], and that the Duke of Chatellerault and the English Ambassador supped with him on 440 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. a Sunday evening. In our preamble to this charge, and in stating the charge itself, we have given to it all the refutation which it merits, and we draw the conclusion to which every considerate and candid mind will come, when we add. It is a pure fancy. Second, the Reformers, in their zeal against superstition, made use of strong language which ought not to be interpreted literally, or viewed apart from the other sayings, and from the practice of its authors. Such is the character of the expressions of Zuing- lius, who said that man was lord of the Sabbath ; of Tyndale ; and of his convert, Fryth (pp. 44, 45 of this volume). It is remarked of Tyndale and Fryth, "These excellent men (cut off before the Reformation had made much progress in England, Frith in 1533, Tyndale three years afterwards), wrote at the time when the evil of the number of the Romish holidays, and the superstitious observance of them by the people, was so strongly felt, as to call for a check even from those who had not then em- braced the oijinions of the Reformers. Yet we should notice that they both speak of Sunday, as made the day of public religious instruction, instead of the ancient Sabbath ; and though Tyndale somewhat extravagantly considers the change of any other day for it still in the power of the Church, his friend Frith represents the change as having been made by the apostles ; for St. Paul certainly was among those forefathers in the beginning who abro- gated the Jewish Sabbath."^ We may add, that none of these men ever attempted to carry their vehement words into effect, and that Tyndale, as noted page 45, was evidently a devout observer of the Lord's day. But Luther was still more given to such paroxysms of zeal. "The law of Moses," Dr. Hengstenberg re- presents him as saying, " belongs to the Jews, and is no longer binding upon us. The words of Scripture prove clearly to us that the ten commandments do not affect us ; for God has not brought us out of Egypt, but only the Jews. We are willing to take Moses as a teacher, but not as our Lawgiver, except when he agrees with the New Testament, and with the law of nature." ^ Hotter still he becomes, according to Coleridge, who treats us, in his Table Talk, to the following explosion : " Keep it holy," are the words of the Reformer, " for its use' sake, both to body and 1 James's Fmir Sermcms, pp. 221, 222. 2 lord's Dap, p. 61. THE EEFORMATION. 441 soul ! But if anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake, if anywhere any one sets up its observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it, to do anything that shall reprove this en- croachment on the Christian spirit and liberty."^ "As for the Sabbath or Lord's day," he remarks, " there is no necessity for keeping it ; but if we do so, it ought to be not on accoimt of Moses' commandment, but because nature teaches us from time to time to take a day of rest, in order that men and animals may recruit their strength, and that we may attend the preaching of God's word. "2 On other occasions, however, he declares that "it is good and necessary that men should keep a particular day ;" speaks of what " God requires of us in this [the fourth] commandment," and holds that, " because the Lord's day has been appointed from the earliest times, we ought to keep to this arrangement." It so far explains the two modes of expression to suppose, that the Reformer objects only to a superstitious regard for a day ; but the full verification of the saying, " Luther is to be interpreted by Luther," must, in the present instance, be sought for by com- paring Luther less cool and informed, with Luther calm and in- structed. He himself would not thank us for attempting to make him at one with himself, for he says, " If at the outset I inveighed against the law, both from the pulpit and in my writ- ings, the reason was, that the Christian Church at the time was overladen with superstitions, under which Christ was altogether buried and hidden, and that I yearned to save and liberate pious and God-fearing souls from this tyranny over the conscience. But I have never rejected the law." " He who pulls down the law, pulls down at the same time the whole framework of human polity and society. If the law be thrust out of the Church, there will no longer be anything recognised as a sin in the world, since the gospel defines and punishes sin only by recurring to the law."^ And again, " Let us leave Moses to his laws, excepting only the Moralia, which God hath planted in nature, as ' the Ten Command- ments.' " * When, accordingly, John Agricolalslebius, the founder of 1 Table Talk, vol. ii. pp. 315, 315. 2 Michelet's Life of Luther, Book iv. chap. ii. •■5 For this and preceding quotation, see Michelet, as above, chap. iv. * Luther's Table Talk, No. 271. 442 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. the Antinomian party (1538), represented the Reformer as holding the doctrine, that the law was abrogated, the latter, in an episto- lary exposure of the opinions of the party, said, " And truly I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me, that I should reject the law or ten commandments, there being so many of my own expositions (and those of several sorts), upon the com- mandments, which also are daily expounded and used in our churches, to say nothing of the Confession, and Apology, and other books of ours. Add hereunto the custom we have to sing the commandments in two different tunes, besides the painting, print- ing, carving, and rehearsing them by children, both morning, noon, and evening ; so that I know no other way than what we have used, but that we do not, alas ! as we ought, really express them in our lives and conversation."^ As an evidence how sensible he was that his opinions were far from being infallible, we find that when a friend informed him of some persons in Belgium, who were offended at certain parts of his writings, his reply was, " When you meet with anything of no worth, delete it, delete it." And although we have not seen any express indication of com- punctious visitings for his language respecting the Sabbath, we can- not but accord with a Lutheran writer in the conviction, that his commentary on Genesis, written not long before his death, and expressing the formerly quoted, clear, decided views of the primi- tive appointment of the institution, with his hymns on the Deca- logue, which he wished to be sung in the Church while he lived and after he was gone, represented his latest Sabbatic opinions.^ One of these hymns, composed in 1525, runs : — " Honour my name in word and deed, And call on me in time of need : Keep holy too the Sabbath day, That work in thee I also may." And the other of the previous year, has the words : — " Hallow the day which God hath blest, That thou and all thy house may rest : Keep hand and heart from labour free, That God may have bis work in thee."^ ^ Rutherford's Spiritual Antichrist, p. 71. ^ Brunsman, Sab. Qnies, par. 215, 219. ^ Geistliche Leider, Lond. (1845), pp. 63, 66, and Massie's Translation, etc. pp. 53, 55. THE EEFORMATION. 443 Third, It may even be allowed that the Keformers erred to some extent in regard to the weekly holy day, while it is held that they did not thereby forfeit their claim to be ranked among the friends of the institution. Calvin, Luther, and, indeed, all the princiiDal men of the Keformation except Knox, were of the opinion of Augustine and others of the fathers, that the fourth was dis- tinguished from the rest of the commandments by being partly of a ceremonial character. They seemed not to know how the trans- ference of the sacred rest from the last to the first day of the week could be reconciled to the doctrine of a moral, unchangeable precept, and therefore adopted the theory of a double aspect of the commandment, one part being ceremonial which has passed away, the other being moral and enduring. The distinction is as unne- cessary as it is untenable. The Second Commandment might as well be supposed to have a twofold character, inasmuch as the means of worship, which it rules, have been changed from Jewish to Christian ordinances. The alteration in both cases was in the circumstances of the law, provided for by positive appointment and special revelation, not in the law itself. The Sabbath had a ceremonial or typical character under the Levitical economy, but not so its royal precept. This was the distinction that ought to have been made by the Fathers and Reformers, but their adopt- ing another, though an error, did not originate in a low estimate of the day of rest, which they regarded, the typical aspect having disappeared, as still the charge of a moral statute. The error, however, had the effect of perplexing their views on the subject, and leading to the use of certain expressions, which have exposed their respect for the institution to suspicion, and the cause itself to practical injury. Another matter in which all the Reformers, with the exception again of Knox, appear to us to have more or less fallen into error, was that of holy-days. We have seen that some would "have removed such days entirely, which in fact was done in Geneva, and at Strasburg, and that the number of them in several instances was reduced. But none of the Reformers was so decided in opinion and practice on the subject as Knox. Even Calvin treated the question as one of comparative unimportance. Whatever was the cause, Luther's early desire for the abolition of holy days was not fulfilled. The prejudice in favour of some of 444 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. them was strong, as we learn from the feelings of the Bernese, of the Belgian magistrates, and of a few in Scotland, who con- tinued to observe certain feast-days for some time after the Re- formation. These observances were restored in Geneva, and have been permanently disregarded among Protestants only by the Puritans of England, and the Presbyterians of Scotland, with their descendants in America and other countries, and by the mission- ary churches which they have planted in various lands. But the failure of the good men of the Reformation to carry into effect Luther's desire for the disbanding of the holy-days, while to be regretted, does not appear a sufficient ground for questioning their respect for the Lord's day, which though in some instances it was classed by them as if it were only the chief in a series of such days, they repeatedly declared to be an express appointment of Heaven, and indispensable to the welfare of the church, withhold- ing, at the same time, that honour from other days of rest and worship. Having endeavoured to present the Sabbatic opinions of the Reformers in the light of truth and facts, we venture to claim on their behalf from our readers a verdict of, " not guilty " of the offence of hostility or even indifference to the institution. They erred, it is allowed, in some of their expressions and proceedings. They unhappily failed to distinguish between the Sabbath as it stood in the Decalogue, and the Sabbath as connected with the judicial and ceremonial appendages of Judaism, and to eradicate what some of themselves called " the useless and hurtful practice of holiday keeping." Theirs, however, were the mistakes of ar- dent friends of piety and good morals, who in eagerly opposing enormities fell into some errors, and in checking the gross abuse of the external and preceptive, as well as in aiming at a high measure of the spiritual and the voluntary in religion, did not sufficiently adjust the claims of the outward and the inward, of liberty and law. Knox avoided their mistakes. In 1547, he adopted, as the result of independent inquiry, the great principles, which guided his future career, and by which he was honoured to effect the most thorough of the salutary revolutions accomplished at the Reformation. In that year he taught at St. Andrews the doc- trine that everything in religion ought to be regulated, not by the THE REFORMATION. 445 pleasure and appointment of men, but according to the Word of God, and in the same year maintained in a public disputation, that the church has no authority, on pretext of decorating Divine service, to devise ceremonies, and impose upon them significations of her own. Row, referring to the six ministers, including Knox and himself, who were employed to draw up the First Book of Discipline^ says, " They took not their example from any kirk in the world ; no, not from Geneva ; but drew their plan from the sacred Scriptures." It w^as in this way, we believe, that Knox formed those views of the Sabbath, which were afterwards so fully expounded by the Puritans, and to which his country owes so much. That the Puritans were indebted to him on the subject, we do not affirm. We know that he took some part in revising the Articles of the English Church, eff"ected some alterations in her service-book, had much influence with the authorities, and produced great impression by his preaching, while from 1549 to the end of 1553 he resided in England ; and we should conceive it more likely that the Puritans borrowed from him, than, as has been supposed, he from them. But it is not necessary to suppose either case, as the more that men make the Scriptures their study and their rule, the more will they " see eye to eye." 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 iii. 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, in which sense the obligation to observe it was to cease with the abrogation of the other Jewish 446 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. 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 Sab- bath 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, etseq. ; vii. 22, et seq.) Thus Rome, faith- ful to her policy, seeks to neutralize truth by error, and to gain the purposes of error by fortifying and dignifying it with an alliance to truth. She finds in Cardinal Tolet, Sir Thomas More, and others, defenders of her assumed power over sacred times, and in the civil authorities the means of enforcing it, for already (in 1538) had three or four men of 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 holyday that his family might not starve, is consigned to the flames. AFTER THE REFOEMATION. 417 SECTION VI. THE SABBATH AFTER THE REFORMATION. We have now reached a point in the history beyond which it is not necessary to trace it particularly, both as the various opinions relative to the institution, held during the period, have already been noticed in the Sketches of controversies, and as many of the facts connected with its observance either have been stated, or will fall to be mentioned in the concluding part of this volume. Church of Rome. — The course of this Church has since the Reformation been one of injury, under a profession of attachment, to the weekly rest. Bellarmine, the Rhemists, and many other writers, have defended her claim of lordship over the Lord's day, while no Roman Catholic divine, it has been remarked, has ever produced a good or able work on the subject. The Catechism of Trent has been followed by many catechisms, in which the Fourth Commandment is made to require the reader to " Remember to keep holy the festivals," not "the Sabbath-day." The Lord's day has been almost entirely dissociated from its natural and neces- sary allies of a preached gospel, the use of the Bible, and family instruction and prayer. In only one instance, and that in a Popish country, has the day been expunged from a national calendar ; but the disregard of its true law has for a long time been pro- verbially prevalent throughout the empire of the Pope. The fol- lowing customs are not of recent origin : When the day of God " is spoken of, it is called a fete or holy day, indiscriminately with the Nativity or Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and these fetes are the regular seasons of public processions or celebrations. Nay, the newspapers, the theatres, etc., are actually suspended on St. Francis's day, or the Feast of the Virgin, but on the Sunday are regularly carried on, and more eagerly followed than ever." 448 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. (Cramp's Text-Book of Popery, p. 335.) And yet even in the Roman Catholic Church and countries the institution has not utterly perished. A portion of its sound doctrine is contained in the creed of the former, and its statute is embodied in the laws of the latter, both bearing their silent testimony against the thought- less 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 ] 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 Protestants. — The free spirit inspired by the Reformation has prompted inquiry and discussion, and, accordingly, the Sabbath has, with other subjects, been the matter of earnest inquiry. But two facts are worthy of remark. First, the Institution has con- tinued for three centuries to be the publicly recognised 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} Second, the agitation of the subject has led to clearer, more settled, and more salutary opinions respecting it. The controver- sies respecting ceremonies in England prepared for the more satis- factory form in which the doctrine of the Sabbath appeared in the Homilies of the Church of England, than it had done in Cran- mer's Catechism and other authorized documents. Similar con- troversies between the ministers of the Church of Scotland, and those who thrust upon that country the Articles of Perth, con- firmed Scotsmen in their early view of the Sabbath, and prepared Henderson and his brethren for the prominent and efi'ective part which they took in framing the Westminster formularies. It has 1 We remember reading a speech by the son and successor of Dr. Daniel Wilson of Isling- ton, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, in which this point was strikingly illustrated. He stated, that the subject of the recovery of England to Popery was considered in a Conclave of Cardinals at Rome, and that after various modes of tiiecting this desirable consumma- tion had been suggested, a wily member of the fraternity, said, " Take away England's Sabbath, and your object will be attained. " Not long after, the Declaration of Sports ap[>eared. AFTER THE REFORMATIO!^. 449 been said too, that the Sabbatic controversies in Holland contri- buted to the lucid statements on our subject in the same formu- laries. In this last case the discussion must have operated more by warning than by example, as the doctrine of the Assembly at Westminster was a decided 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. Let us here present the views held by the Westminster Divines, as they are expressed in their Confession of Faith, and in the words — to many more familiar and endeared — of their Shorter Cate- chism : — " 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- mon aflfau's 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." ^ "Which is the Fourth Commandment ? " 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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, 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, acd rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 1 Confession, ch. xxi. sect. 7, 8. 2 F 450 THE SABBATH IN HISTORY. " What is required in the Fourth Commandment 1 "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 Sabbath. " How is the Sabbath to be sanctified 1 " 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 thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employ- ments or recreations. " AVhat are the reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment ? " 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 the Sabbath day."^ 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. 1 Shorter Catechism. THE SABBATH VINDICATED. THE SABBATH VINDICATED CHAPTER I. THEOKIES TEIED BY THE PRINCIPLES OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. It is intended to apply in some following chapters certain tests derived from both Reason and Revelation, to the leading opinions that have been entertained on the subject of the Sabbath, with the view, if possible, of adjudicating on their conflicting claims. Most of the opinions in question have been occasionally noticed already in this volume. But it may not be unnecessary to present them here in a compendious form, so far as this can be done in a case in which so many writers, more or less agreed in sentiment, have each some notion of his own. The general points in dispute rela- tive to the institution have been its necessity and importance, its authority, its date and duration, the proportion and distribution of its time, with the manner and rule of its observance. A weekly holy day is repudiated by some, because they hold all days to be alike common ; by others, because they regard all days as alike sacred. The Sabbatarian affirms that the seventh day of the week 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 the other Jewish rites and ceremonies, at the death of Christ."^ The Lord's day is approved by various classes on different grounds : as a merely salu- tary and necessary arrangement, or as a state enactment, or as an 1 Trideniinc Catechism on the Third (Fourth) Comviandmait. 454 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. ecclesiastical ordinance, or as recommended by the examples of a Mosaic institution and of Apostolic practice, or as the appointment of Christ. 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, the existence of which they deny, or with the Sabbath of Sinai, which, they assert, has been abrogated ; but while they agree in these points, they differ widely as to the duties of the day, some conceiving that it ought to be sacredly observed throughout, others that its demands of service are satisfied by two or three hours spent in public worship. A second class admit the primitive institution of a Sab- bath, but view neither that nor the Sinaitic Sabbath, both, they say, having passed away with their respective economies, as con- stituting any formal reason for hallowing the Christian Sabbath, the authority and sanctity of which, however, they strenuously maintain. And a third class contend that the Lord's day has, by authority of Christ, succeeded to the seventh-day Sabbath, not as this was a part of the judicial and ceremonial law of the Jews, but as it was appointed for mankind in Paradise, embodied in the Decalogue, and regulated by the fourth of its precepts. Christians, too, have held diff'erent opinions respecting the nature and proper observance of the Sabbath-law, some viewing it as natural and moral even as respects its particular day of the week ; others, as positive ; a third class, as natural, moral and positive or moral-positive ; while some have pleaded for strictness, others for a latitude of observance. To this enumeration of theories may be added that which interprets the days of God's working and rest at the creation as denoting, not common days, but periods of long duration, the dogma being by some employed to annihilate, by others explained to favour, a primal day of rest. We must add also the views of those who plead for a distribution of the weeklyMay of rest amongst the duties of religion, secular studies, and amusement. By bringing the various doctrines that have been recounted to the tests of reason and experience, and of Scripture, in its discovery of the principles of the Divine govern- ment, in its predictions and promises, as well as in its plain state- ments and general scope, it may not be difl&cult to determine where, amidst so many contending creeds, the truth lies. THEOEIES TEIED. 455 FIRST TEST OF OPINIONS. This is supplied in certain principles of the Divine government, which are discovered in its histoiy, and more plainly in the in- spired volume. 1. One of such principles is unity of plan. In proving " the unity " of God from " the uniformity " observable in the physical universe, Dr. Paley has truly and beautifully said, " We never get amongst such original or totally different modes of existence as to indicate that we are come into the province of a different Creator, or under the direction of a different will."^ In confirmation of this statement, he refers, among various facts, to the one law of attraction canying all the planets about the sun, one atmosphere investing and connecting all parts of the globe, one moon in- fluencing all tides, and one kind of blood circulating in all ani- mals. What is true of the material is no less tnie of the moral world in all its known provinces and eras. In physical natiure we observe an endless variety of bodies and phenomena under the uniform regulation of great common principles, and in like man- ner, amidst a diversity of circumstances and forms, we discover a pervading imity in the laws of the moral government of God. We find the same benevolence, sovereignty, and love of righteous- ness reigning in the Divine procedure; one Savioiu: for Jew and Gentile, one method of justification, and one indispensable requi- site of regeneration, in all ages ; one kind of worship substantially offered, and one moral code obeyed, by Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul ; and one Church, which, in obedience to the Divine call — " Enlarge the place of thy t€nt, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations " (Isa. liv. 2) — has passed from a circumscribed into an extended economy. In holding that the great Master has ever regulated the time of his servants — that the King of kings has never been without his appointed seasons for receiving the petitions and homage of his subjects, the theories that maintain a permanent and universal Sabbath pre- serve the consistency of the Divine administration. But the other theories violate this harmony when they suppose that for many centuries there was no Sabbath at all, and then, for many more, a 1 Works, Nat. Theol. cb. xxv. 456 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Sabbath rigidly ruled, and when they countenance either the entire abolition of the sacred day, or the new appointment of a partial one, a dies inter cisus, or the opinion that the arrangement of resting and holy time has been left entirely to human dis- cretion. We confidently ask whether, in passing from the Patri- archal to the Jewish, and then to the Christian manner of religion and life as represented by these theories, we do not find ourselves amongst so original and totally difi'erent modes of existence as to indicate that we are come under the direction of a difi'erent will 1 2. It is at the same time a character of the Divine government that its plans are progressive in their development ; that, while the great outlines are in all ages the same, there is a gradual fill- ing up of the scheme. Paley and others imagine a transition from no Sabbath to one whose rules were of the most stringent description, a view implying not only a violent change utterly unlike the usual method of the Divine procedure, but the intro- duction of an entirely new principle, of which we have no paral- lel case in the history of the moral government of God. We may indeed be reminded of the Incarnation as an unprecedented fact, peculiar to the latest dispensation of religion, but this fact did not burst on an unprepared world ; it was intimated in the first pro- mise, it was more clearly made known in the prophecies that fol- lowed, it was shadowed by frequent appearances of the Divinity in human form, and its benefit was really enjoyed by all believers in ancient times. It is like the Atonement, which, though not actually made till thousands of years had elapsed, was from the beginning a declared principle and felt blessing of religion. The objection from the Incarnation would be in point, if the Sabbath had been anticipated and its good realized long before it came into existence. This, however, could not be. Advantage may and does spring from a future moral fact, but not from a prospec- tive institute. Nor is the theory which restricts the Sabbath of Christianity to the old day less opposed to the principle of pro- gress. While Paley introduces an element so new in its nature, and so abrupt in its entrance, as to disturb the orderly and equable march of the Divine government, this altogether arrests it, and stays progress and improvement. It stereotypes a moral precept on a mere accident. It is an attempt, however undesigned, to THEOKIES TEIED. 457 perpetuate Judaism. It reverses the command to forget the things which are behind, and to reach forth to those which are before. How much more consonant than any of these theories, to an identical and yet advancing scheme, is that of a Sabbath, which, as the same holy and benignant institution in all time, presents a history, not of unnatural stagnation or of violent tran- sitions, but of harmony with the unfolding plans of its Author, subserving the piety and bliss of paradise ; then sustaining the hope of a coming Saviour, as well as faith in the Creator ; now commemorating, along with the ever-to-be-remembered fact of a finished creation, the more glorious fact of a perfected redemption, and offering a more immediate and satisfying foretaste of heavenly joy ; and, finally, receiving its highest and most lasting honour at the consummation of all things, when, entirely transferred to the world above, it will be the sole measure of the eternal life. 3. A regard to order is a manifest feature of the Divine rule. " God is not the author of confusion." He who requires that all things should be " done decently and in order," is himself the perfection and pattern of his own law. The Great Master " gives authority to his servants, and to every man his work." In cor- respondence with this principle of order which pervades the Divine administration, and which prevails in every well-regulated society among men, is the theory which afiQrms a perpetual Sabbath ; which affirms, in other words, that the Ruler of the world has never failed to legislate on one of the most important afi'airs of his Court and Kingdom — the days when he will confer favours on his people, and receive their homage. But how strange and ano- malous are the views supposed by other theories that, while man- kind in general have had their distribution of time for secular work and sacred service, the only possessors of a true religion should for many generations have been without such arrangement ; that while " gods many and lords many" " which are yet no gods," have received the tribute of periodical holy days, the only living and true God should have been without this order and honour, and should have introduced the custom only after it had been practised by idolaters and outcasts from his favour ; that He who regulates the time for all other things, for daily labour and nightly repose, for sowing and reaping, for the migrations of the swallow 458 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. and the fall of a sparrow equally as for the removal of kings and the destruction of empires, in short, " for every purpose," should have, in any instance, omitted the prescription of a season for his own immediate service, and what is especially remarkable, that He should appoint such a season for the Jews and not for the Patriarchs or for Christians. Such views involve a charge of dis- order, derogatory to the perfection of that " kingdom which ruleth over all." And yet the notion of a rigid adherence to one day, the seventh, while it seems a tribute to order, may in reality be an imputation to the Divine Government of a human frailty which so often amongst us perverts a noble virtue into the vice of a slavish punctiliousness. The Disposer of time is not under its control. " He changeth the times and the seasons." " The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." He who commanded Israel on their coming out of Egypt to commence their year in a different month, and who abolished the years, months, and days of the Jewish ceremonial, has it no less in his power to say, " It is my will that henceforth the first instead of the last day of the week shall be the day of rest to the world, and the day of my special worship." Such a change would only be agreeable to the authority which the God of order claims and has repeatedly exer- cised over man's time, while not to exert it in this case might be to transgress the higher order of assigning to Redemption its proper precedency among the Divine works. 4. Among the excellencies of the Divine government is that " goodness which endureth continually," If we refer to provi- dence, Scripture and facts assure us that " the Lord is good to all," and that " his tender mercies are overall his works," while he is peculiarly kind to " them that love hhn, and are the called according to his purpose," to whom " all things work together for good." If we turn to the scheme of redemption, we find that it has uniformly combined with saving mercy to some, a bountiful proffer of its blessings to all. Now it is not in accordance with either the [general philanthropy or the special love of God to conceive that the Sabbath is not a provision for all time. It is contrary to His benevolence to suppose that many centuries had passed away ere mankind were favoured with an institution which lias been proved to be in all respects so conducive, and even indis- THEOEIES TRIED. 459 pensable to their wellbeing ; and it is especially contradictory to that peculiar regard which the God of salvation entertains for his own obedient children, to imagine that He should have withheld so great a boon as a Sabbath from such men as Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. Christianity is, still more than preceding dispensations, distinguished by its catholicity and benevolence, and how incongruous the idea, that it has entirely set aside a law wliich provides a perio- dical rest for man and beast, or that it has made no appointment for the still more important interests of the soul beyond two or three hours for public worship ! And what shall be said of their views who, admitting the benignant character, and expediency of the in- stitution, maintain nevertheless that there is no express authority for the Lord's day 1 No express authority for a day which is essential to the welfare of men and the lower animals ! The no- tion, on other grounds untenable, is a reflection on the love and care of the universal Ruler, and equally on the grace of the Author of Christianity, as it implies that the former could cease to pre- serve man and beast, and that the latter would abandon his friends to perpetual and perplexing uncertainty respecting the seasons of Divine worship. A better theory, however, not only leaves un- impeached, but glorifies the goodness of God, since it teaches the doctrine of a Sabbath instituted for man from the beginning, and destined to continue to the end of time, a Sabbath, too, which would have been universally and uninterruptedly possessed, had men not cast ofi" its salutary but for them too holy restraints and demands, and which the good have never failed to be favoured with, to prize, and to enjoy. That there is no want of express authority for the Christian Sabbath is obvious, not at present to mention still more convincing considerations, from the remarkable harmony among true Christians in the matter, from their readi- ness in general to recognise the obligation of the institution with- out feeling any doubt or difl&culty in regard to the path of duty, and from the profit and pleasure received by them in proportion as they devote a whole day in seven to holy rest. And would not that small minority of Christians who honour the Divine goodness by holding in common with their brethren the perpetuity of the Sabbath, still more honour it if they were brought to see that in checking a superstitious fondness for mere times, and in magni- 460 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. fying the new creation by the transference of the ordinance from the day of a preparatory economy, to that which ushered in the better covenant, it has won for itself not the least of its benign glories 1 5. The Divine Ruler must regulate his subjects by laws. Without these there could be no good government. A state of things in which every one is allowed to do what he pleases, is identical with disorganization, disorder, and all evil. Better far any government than none. The reign of Jehovah is a reign of law. Even among those who have not liked to retain Him in their knowledge. His law is recognised by their consciences. And where He has favoured any of the human race with the revela- tion of His merciful designs towards man, whether immediately after the fall, or after they had lost sight of them, there He has at the same time made known His will as to all that they should do in His service. The patriarchs and the Jews had the means of directing them in their conduct. And so have Chris- tians. They " are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." And what the excellence of the law of God is we are abundantly informed. It is perfect, exceeding broad, spiritual, holy, just, and good. But certain theories of the Sabbath appear to be irreconcil- able with this character of the Divine government, by detracting from the excellence, if they do not even set aside the obliga- tion, of the law of God. For many centuries, according to several of them, there was no rule for a Sabbath ; during the period of the Mosaic economy, there were very definite, and full, and solemn regulations on that subject ; and, under Christianity, there is no authorized day for rest and worship, say some, and none, say others, beyond the appropriation of a day to rest, and of a few of its hours to Divine service. And yet the supporters of all these theories regard the Sabbath as a great and indispensable blessing. But such views exhibit Divine legislation as at one time complete and at another imperfect, wholly or in part over- looking the provision of an acknowledged necessary boon and direction relative to the important matter of the seasons in which the social worship of God is to be observed ; in other words, as a matter of partiality and fluctuation. Nor is this all. These THEORIES TRIED. 461 theorists set aside from being a law to us not only the Fourth Commandment, but the other nine as given from Sinai. The laws of the New Testament, according to them, are our only rule of conduct. Thus we are without law. For the New Testament has no law of its own. It is a commentary, not a law. The doctrine of a perpetual Sabbath, on the other hand, recog- nises the Divine law as, like its Author, perfect and immutable ; as holy and impartial, prescribing the same distribution of time for men of all ages and nations — as good, setting forth the Divine will in clear and unequivocal terms, and providing a day of rest and wor- ship adapted for all. Let it not be considered as a satisfactory reply to this view, that some things were required of the Jews that are not required of us, and that many such changes have taken place under the government of God. It is true that the ancients were to offer sacrifice in anticijxition of a Saviour, while we are to observe the Lord's Supper in memory of a Saviour ; that there is a wide difference between heathen men and Christians, in respect of the measure of obligation and responsibility ; that the Jews were to observe certain feasts, annual and monthly, as well as the sacred rest of the seventh day of the week, while we are to observe only one stated day, and that, the first day of the week. The varieties in all these cases are in the circumstances of mankind, not in the law. These circumstances determine the application of the one law, without altering it by a single jot or tittle. To imagine, how- ever, a change from no Sabbath to a Sabbath, and then from a Sabbath to none at all, or to one that is limited to two or three hours, is to imagine a change not in the circumstances but in the essential principles of law and government, since one day of rest and worship in the seven is a statute founded on the Divine ex- ample at the Creation of the world, and on the demonstrated demands of the human constitution : moreover, be the matter what it may, we are not legislators, but subjects bound in every- thing to obey our Divine Sovereign, who has given us a rule that embraces all our thoughts, words, and actions. And whatever changes may take place in the circumstances of the Sabbath, it is not conceivable that these can ever be in the direction of diminish- ing its value or the amount of its time. The new fact of a finished redemption, and the increased privileges entailed by it, 462 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. only serve more clearly to show the importance of the institution, and to supply motives for its more spiritual and earnest observ- ance ; while, instead of subtracting from its allotted and necessaiy time, they direct our views, and approximate us more nearly to the eternal period when the condition of man no longer requiring the labour of six days for the supply of his bodily wants, his whole time shall be sacred time ; his exclusive occupation that of keeping a Sabbath. We deny not to those friends of the institution who cling to its ancient day the credit of a conscientious respect for the law of the Ten Commandments. But we conceive that their scheme and pleadings do, in fact, misrepresent and dishonour that law. It is right to ascertain and vindicate its real meaning. But assuredly the Lawgiver must be the best interpreter of His own law. Now, we find two things done by His apostles, who must have acted in both by His authority, else their writings are not a part of the Word of God, nor their example, though expressly declared to be so, a rule for us. The Jewish Sabbath-days are repealed, as " a shadow of things to come," and yet on the first day of the week, worshipping assemblies are repeatedly declared to be held by the apostles and the Christian Churches. While it would be as absurd to infer from these facts a change in the fourth commandment as it would be to suppose that the fifth is no longer binding on those who are not resident in " the land " to which it primarily referred ; on the other hand, it would be no less absurd, in opposition to inspired interpretation, to construe the former as binding us to the observance of the seventh day. Let it be observed, in a word, that an opinion which insists on such a meaning of the expression, " the seventh day," as brings the statute into collision with apostolic appointment and practice, when the language admits of another and harmonious explanation, and which lends a perpetual glory to a day no longer, according to a sacred writer, to be gloried in, strikes, in one blow, at the authority of the New Testament, of the Sabbath law, and of the entire Decalogue. 6. In close connexion with the principle of an administration by law, is another principle in the government of God, that of an exclusively Divine legislation. It is the prerogative of the Most THEORIES TEIED. 463 High to frame and authorize the rules by which His worship and service are to be conducted. According as this right is recognised in Sabbatic theories may we estimate their truth. Theorists have not been satisfied with shaping Divine laws to their own views and wishes, but, to complete the dishonour done to the Lawgiver, they have fancied man himself rightfully vault- ing into the seat, and seizing the reins of government. The Church, say some, has the power of enacting a weekly holiday. The State has it, say others. Every man, says a third class, is in this matter a law to himself The advocates of a Sabbath ap- pointed by the Supreme Ruler for all time, while recognising, as we have seen, the existence and perfection of the Divine law, acknowledge also the authority of its Author as exclusive, admitting of no co-ordinate rule, and leaving no legislative power in the hands of creatures. The civil power may undertake too much, and burden itself with matters which would be better left to individual discretion and private arrangement. And yet were the surveillance perfect, there would be reason rather for satisfaction than complaint. It is because private associations and individuals know best how to promote their own interests, and are in this way larger benefactors of the State, that a redundancy of law is an evil. But the legis- lation of infinite intelligence, justice and goodness, cannot be too comprehensive and supreme. There is but "one Lawgiver," and His law is "exceeding broad." In instituting the ancient worship, everything, down to the smallest vessel and pin, was embraced in His prescriptions. How frequently are we told that this and that part of the work in the construction of the tabernacle, and this and the other par- ticular in its connected service, were done " as the Lord com- manded Moses." And the temple as well as the tabernacle was built and furnished according to a Divine pattern. Nor, in settling the affairs of the Christian economy, was the Head of the Church less mindful of His prerogative, or of the good of men. " Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over His own house." The sole Lawgiver still rejects from the rule of His Church, " the commandments of men." The apostles enacted no laws, instituted no ordinances. 464 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Their business was to " teach all things whatsoever their Master commanded them." They disclaimed "dominion over the faith" of their disciples. And their instructions have been deposited in the New Testament as the complement of Revelation, that volume which is not to be altered, and by which all the teachings of in- dividuals, and all the dogmas of councils are to be tried. It is, as with other things, so with the appropriation of time. As to this also we are under a complete and exclusive law. He who has appointed to every thing its time, and who " changeth the times and the seasons," has ever refused to give this " glory to another." In the instance even of ritual observance, Elijah shall wait for, and Gabriel respect, the time of the evening sacrifice, and the man " who made Israel to sin " is held forth to execra- tion for " devising of his own heart," the day of a religious feast. It is an antagonist of " the Most High and of His saints," an anti-Christian power, that is predicted as " thinking to change times and laws," as, in other words, " presuming to alter the appointed seasons and the law." ^ And the Lawgiver is as "jealous" as ever of His prerogative : " For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sab- bath." When do we find Him surrendering this Divine right, and conveying it to any man or number of men 1 Among His last words on earth were : " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." When, therefore, the Pope ventured to substitute " festi- vals "^ for the " Sabbath day," in the Fourth Commandment, and otherwise to claim a power over the institution, he perpetrated not the least of the enormities of that usurped authority by which he conceives himself at liberty to suspend, alter, or abrogate Divine laws, and serves himself heir to the names and to the doom of " the opponent of the Most High," and " the man of sin." Closely did they follow in his track who devised, proclaimed, and patronized " The Book of Sports." And to plead, as Archbishop Whately does, for the right of the Church, and, as others do, for the right of the State, to institute a Sabbath, are surely errors of the same description, and, however plausibly presented, infringe- 1 Win tie's Version. 2 Ricordati di Santificare le Feste— Remember to keep holy the festivals.— Do^rma Cris- tiana, etc., p. 24 (composed by Bellarmine, by order of Clement viii., and approved by the Congregation of Reform). THEORIES TEIED. 465 ments as real of His prerogative, who is Head of the Church and Lord of the Sabbath. And let not those who maintain that all daj^s are now alike, and nevertheless observe a weekly Sabbath from mere considera- tions of its utility, or of its former or present prevalence, imagine that their views escape the charge of interference with the Divine prerogative. These views tend to the conclusions, that the Deity has abdicated his dominion over the times of worship, and aban- doned men in that matter to anarchy and confusion. They hold that sacred days have been abrogated, and yet they keep them, — in other words, they institute an ordinance, and make a law, " of their own hearts." Nor can the theory which maintains the continued obligation of the seventh day stand the test of the principle now under con- sideration. If the Sabbath be in all respects moral, it must also be to that extent immutable. That the ajjpropriation of a seventh day to rest and worship is moral and unchangeable, we admit. It is not more conceivable that this law of Creation and of Sinai could be repealed than that the whole economy of nature in the present state could be subverted. It is as impossible that the consecration of one day in seven to sacred service should be set aside as that any other statute should be obliterated from the moral law. The continued demand for such a day, at once by the physical wants and by the spiritual necessities of man, is an ad- ditional evidence of its moral character and of its permanence. But the Lord of the Sabbath not only refused to impose the ob- servance of the Jewish " Sabbath days" on his Gentile followers, but after his resurrection paid no respect to them in his own practice, met with his disciples on the first day of the week, and was imitated in his regard for the latter by all the Christian churches of whose assemblies for worship there is any account. Circumstances, as we have already seen, are mentioned, showing that arrangements were made for it as the stated and understood day of such meetings. It follows that there was something in the old Sabbath which could be changed, that the institution ad- mitted of transference from the last to the first day of the week ; and as it has appeared that various theorists have asserted for human beings the power of appointing a Sabbath, it is now as 2 G 468 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. for an entirely Christian institute. The apostles, in their mention of the first day of the week, say nothing of its design and observ- ance beyond those of public worship, and contributions of our substance to the poor ; nothing of further rest from secular labour ; nothing, in short, of the way in which the greater part of a whole day, and that "the Lord's day," is to be spent. Whether, then, we consider the Divine manner of clearly defining the purposes and duties of religious ordinances, or the uselessness of any law that is indefinite and doubtful, we are shut up to the conclusion, which other considerations no less demand, that we must seek in the Old Testament as well as in the New — in primi- tive institution and in Mosaic legislation, as well as in Apostolic instruction and example — for the obligations and characters that complete the Christian Sabbath. It is well for the institution and for mankind that few of the best friends of both have adopted a theory which rejects the Divine and only adequate security for a periodical day of rest to man and beast, and secularizes all but a few hours in the week, thus frustrating both the moral and physical ends of sacred time, and exposing its tiny spark to ex- tinction on an ocean of worldly business, pleasures, and cares. Those who call in question the primaeval origin of the Sabbath are chargeable with doing an injury and a wrong to the institu- tion. They would remove one of its main pillars — the evidence, afforded by its appointment at so early a period, to prove its destination for the race. They would take away from its vener- ableness ; they would disprove, if they could, its necessity. Their theory says, " The patriarchs lived and died without a Sabbath, attaining long life and high measures of moral excellence indepen- dently of its aid ; and what they could dispense with so may we." And who would care to contend for a Jewish ceremony which the experience of the patriarchs has proved to be a local and tem- porary expedient, useless to men in general, — nay, if useless, an encumbrance and an evil ? To refer to one more opinion : certain theorists, by grounding the institution on human authority, ecclesiastical or civil, place it on a foundation of sand. The conscience is not reached ; the law must vary with every latitude and every reign. Independence and caprice, allowed exemption from the immediate control of a THEOKIES TRIED. 469 Supreme Being, declare " that tliey wdll not be trammelled where the Creator has left man free." The love of jileasure or of gain says, " I will take such a law into my own hands, and spurn enactments Avhich stand in the way of my interest and gratifica- tion." Thus made supreme in a matter in which the feelings are opposed to restraint, how can it be conceived that man's submis- sion to Sabbatic law can be either hearty or lasting, or that the law itself can stand ? 470 THE SABBATH VINDICATED, CHAPTER II. THEORIES TRIED BY SCRIPTURE IN ITS OBVIOUS MEANING AND GENERAL SCOPE. SECOND TEST OF OPINIONS. PART I. The theories held on the subject of the Sabbath, while they are to be estimated, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, by their harmony or discordance with certain principles of the Divine government, as these are clearly enunciated in the sacred oracles, admit of being tried by the infallible standard of truth and excel- lence, in another form. If the hypotheses on which they are based, and the arguments by which they are supported, be irre- concilable with the testimony of Kevelation, a further proof must be afforded that they themselves are untenable. If the founda- tions and battlements of the city be not the Lord's, it is not en- titled to be " called a city of truth." It is the object of this chapter to show that all theories but one are disproved by this test. The Word of God, as designed to convey the most important in- formation to mankind, must be capable of being understood by them, and being a Divine writing must excel all human compositions in adaptedness to its end. Holy men, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, could not utter what was unintelligible, or express one thing when they meant another. To many, indeed, their words must be translated ; but there are those who are able to repair to the fountain-heads, and the true meaning may, in all that concerns salvation and duty, be ascertained by every sincere inquirer. With this view, it is plain that Scripture must be interpreted according to the ordinary meaning of language, except in cases of poetical or prophetic diction, which it is not THEORIES TRIED. 471 difficult to discriminate. With this view, also, the whole Book must be kept in view, and spiritual things compared with spiritual, for, though a single sentence in many cases conveys its own meaning, there are subjects on which it would be impossible to form en- larged or even just views without such a process of induction, less or more, as is due even to the humblest of writers. As none, we presume, will dispute the truth of these remarks, we forbear the easy task of confirming them. But to all theories, saving one, it is a fatal objection that they are dependent for their support on the violation of the two prin- ciples now indicated. First, they cannot be maintained without a departure from the obvious or commonly understood meaning of terms. One of the most remarkable instances of the bold freedom with which certain Avriters 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 insti- tution by thousands of years. Let us again present the beauti- fully 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 it ; be- cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."^ 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 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 1 Gen. ii. 1-3. 470 ' THE SABBATH VINDICATED. CHAPTER II. THEORIES TEIED BY SCRIPTURE IN ITS OBVIOUS MEANING AND GENERAL SCOPE. SECOND TEST OF OPINIONS. PART I. The theories held on the subject of the Sabbath, while they are to be estimated, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, by their harmony or discordance with certain principles of the Divine government, as these are clearly enunciated in the sacred oracles, admit of being tried by the infallible standard of truth and excel- lence, in another form. If the hypotheses on which they are based, and the arguments by which they are supported, be irre- concilable with the testimony of Revelation, a further proof must be afforded that they themselves are untenable. If the founda- tions and battlements of the city be not the Lord's, it is not en- titled to be " called a city of truth." It is the object of this chapter to show that all theories but one are disproved by this test. The Word of God, as designed to convey the most important in- formation to mankind, must be capable of being understood by them, and being a Divine writing must excel all human compositions in adaptedness to its end. Holy men, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, could not utter what was unintelligible, or express one thing when they meant another. To many, indeed, their words must be translated ; but there are those who are able to repair to the fountain-heads, and the true meaning may, in all that concerns salvation and duty, be ascertained by every sincere inquirer. With this view, it is plain that Scripture must be interpreted according to the ordinary meaning of language, except in cases of poetical or prophetic diction, which it is not THEORIES TRIED. 471 difficult to discriminate. With this view, also, the whole Book must be kept in view, and spiritual things compared with spiritual, for, though a single sentence in many cases conveys its own meaning, there are subjects on which it would be impossible to form en- larged or even just views without such a process of induction, less or more, as is due even to the humblest of writers. As none, we presume, will dispute the truth of these remarks, we forbear the easy task of confirming them. But to all theories, saving one, it is a fatal objection that they are dependent for their support on the violation of the two prin- ciples now indicated. First, they cannot be maintained without a departure from the obvious or commonly understood meaning of terms. 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 Grenesis ante-dates the insti- tution by thousands of years. Let us again present the beauti- fully 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 it ; be- cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."^ 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 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 1 Gen. ii. 1-3. 472 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. 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 tl^s mere assertion, so gratuitous and wild, built theories and sj^stems 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. What is the conclusion to which the] other interpre- tation would shut us up 1 It is, as already remarked, that a sacred writer has expressed himself in such terms as necessarily to lead us into error. 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 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," is employed in Scripture in difi'erent 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 THEORIES TRIED. 473 when tlie sacred writer, 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 word 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.^ Second, we specified another principle of interpretation as contra- vened in the advocacy of certain theories, the principle which re- quires that sacred like other writings should be examined and explained according to their scope and connexion. 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 primseval 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."^ 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 1 The following word'* of an able geologist as well as theologian are worthy of attention : — "We have then six tlays, 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." — Dr. J. Pye Smith in " Course of Lectures to Young Men," (1?38) p. 18. ^ Paley's Works, ISino, vol. iv. pp. 290, 291. 474 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. in uncertain speculations on such a circumstance as that referred to, and we 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 woidd 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 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 he has inverted the universally admitted order of procedure in 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 ftict 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, efi'ec- tually, by the thunders of Sinai. The true meaning of silence, THEORIES TRIED. 475 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 sanc- 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 institutions, laws, and events ? Of the Fall of man nothing is said for the period during which the Sabbath receives no particular notice. That momentous event is traced 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 mere intimation of a destined or prospec- tive event, as it is alleged the account of the Sabbath was ? An afiirmative 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, 476 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. because it is nowhere expressly recorded in the story of their lives. "^ 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- tion of the true law of marriage. The Sabbatical year is during a space of nine hundred years passed over in 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 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."^ 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 w^e 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 is, 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."^ 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- 1 Owen on Sab. Exerc. 3d. sect. 37. ' Ilolden on the Christian Sabbath, p. Z7. ^ Scripture Account of the Sabbath, p. 43. THEORIES TRIED. 477 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 writers 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 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, 478 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. 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 with 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 forgotten solemn feasts and Sabbaths in Sion. 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 iu 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 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 con- duct 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 indica- tions that it is only a means to the higher end of salvation and moral excellence. And yet that they do not thereby prejudice the institution itself is not less manifest. Isaiah 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 THEORIES TEIED. 479 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 extending to thousands more. PAET n. There are hardly any errors on our subject, arising from a par- tial view of Scripture, more important than those relating to the laws of Moses. Attempts have, for instance, been made to prove that the Sabbath was not appointed at the Creation, by considerations which affect the antiquity of all Divine legislation. Dr. Paley and others adduce the following passages as evidence that 2500 years had passed away ere a Sabbatic appointment 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." ^ " Thou camest 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 ser- vant." 2 To insist that such language establishes the origination of the Sabbath at the time to which it refers, requires us not less 1 Ezek. XX. 10-12. 2 Neb. ix. 13, 14. 480 THE SABBATH A^NDICATED. to believe, that all the other statutes mentioned in connexion with that institution were then also enacted. We do not charge the writers in question with really holding the opinion that circum- cision, sacrifices, and the decalogue, were for the first time com- manded at Sinai ; but they must either hold this opinion, or abandon their argument. How untenable would be the former part of the alternative. Circumcision, we know, had been ap- pointed four hundred years before, and it is worthy of notice, that, like Ihe Sabbath, it is mentioned as given at the commencement of the Levitical dispensation : " Moses gave unto you circumcision ; not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers." ^ Sacrifices, too, had been offered as early as the days of Abel. And the Ten Commandments were in force from the Creation. There are traces of them all in the Book of Genesis. " For until the law sin was in the world : but sin is not imputed when there is no law." 2 The distinction of the transactions of Sinai, and of the people who witnessed them, and of their descendants, w^as that laws and institutions previously appointed and known were then, with superadded ceremonies and political statutes, formally promul- gated, committed to writing, and organized into a regular system. This w^as an emphatical " giving of Sabbaths," just as it was the giving of other " right judgments and true laws, good statutes, and commandments," from the fulness, clearness, and formality of their recognition, including, it might be, so much of novelty as was implied in the additional Sabbaths of the new economy. This was " the making known to them of God's holy Sabbath," in the same way as it was " the showing them God's judgments ;" for " he sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judg- ments unto Israel."^ But all this said nothing that was not common to all the laws — moral, civil, and ceremonial, laws old and new ; and it no more disproved the antecedent institution of the Sabbath than it did that of circumcision, or of the existing laws requiring honour to parents, and respect for property and human life. It is true, that the words in Ezekiel mention that God then gave Israel his Sabbaths "to be a sign between him and them." This language still less conveys the idea of an entirely new gift. 1 John vii. 22. 2 Rom. v. 13. s pg. cxlvii 19. THEORIES TRIED. ' 481 Dr. Paley, however, contends that "it does not seem easy to understand how the Sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to be so." But this can be no objection to the view that the institution existed long before it was so applied ; for a great variety of objects, a heap of stones, a transitory rite, like circumcision, the perpetual rainbow, the unchanging ordin- ances of the sky, and the eternal law of God, may be and have been converted into similar signs and memorials. Neither can the use of the Sabbath, as a sign between God and the people of Israel, determine the design of the institution to be peculiar to them. " If the Divine command," are the words of Dr. Paley in another place, " was actually delivered at the Creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike, and con- tinues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it." If this reasoning is just, and if the supposition has been made good, the conclusion must hold. The same result is reached in another way. What- ever idecidiar duty and privilege to the children of Israel were involved in their being commanded " to bind the law of God as a sign upon their hands," there was nothing in it to show that the law itself, thus made a sign, was intended for them alone. The law was moral. And, in like manner, the Sabbath, although em- ployed as a sign between God and Israel, " was made for man." When man had cast away the Sabbath, and the whole law, the Almighty selected a portion of the human race to be the deposi- taries of His will, dealing with them as He had done with no other nation.! '' What advantage hath the Jew, or what profit was there of circumcision ? Much every way ; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."^ But why were such favours conferred upon the Jews, except that they might be benefited by privileges, the highest of which were as capable of blessing the Gentiles, and that having fulfilled their functions as witnesses and custodiers of Divine truth, they might in due time impart it to mankind. The law, which was a sign to Israel, was to "go forth from Sion," and did go forth. And so the Sabbath, notwithstanding any local or temporary purpose served by it, 1 Ps. cxItu. 20. 2 Rom. iii. 1. 2. 482 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. might be destined to be, as it lias in reality become, a law and blessing to mankind. Some of these remarks serve to introduce another mistaken view of the laws of Moses. The writers in question confound things that differ, blending together the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws of the Jews. Dr. Paley, for the purpose, we presume, of showing that the Sabbath must have taken its rise in the wilderness, and in connexion with the Jewish economy, adduces some adjuncts of the institution as it obtained under that economy. He mentions, in the first place, the strict cessation from work enjoined by the law of the Jewish Sabbath upon Jews and all residing within the limits of the State, the permission of such cessation to their slaves and their cattle, and the punishment of the violation of this rest with death (Exodus xxxi. 15). Now, here, that able writer con- ceives of the Fourth Commandment, and of certain judicial regu- lations, peculiar to that people and time, as if they were the same thing. The penalty of death is not specified in the Fourth Com- mandment. It formed a part of the political law, which assigned the same punishment to idolatry and disobedience to parents. The political law, except in so far as it expressed the eternal principles of morality, was the law of a nation only in which the Church and State were one, and is not therefore generally applicable to any other nation. It might be as justly affirmed that duty to parents was a peculiarity of Judaism, beginning and ending with it, as that the observance of the Sabbath was such a peculiarity, since the one as well as the other was, by the law of Moses, required on pain of death.^ As Dr. Paley does not cite in- stances from Scripture of strictness in the iDJunction of rest, but only facts in the conduct of the Jews, we will not go with him at present into this subject, observing only that what the Fourth Commandment required in this matter must not be identified with anything really burdensome, or with oppressive ceremonies added by the Jews, since the institution which it regulated was to be called " a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable. "2 " Besides which," says Dr. Paley, " the seventh day was to be 1 Deut. xxi. 18, 21. 2 i^a. Iviii. 13. THEORIES TRIED. 483 solemuized by double sacrifices."^ These sacrifices, however, as compared with those offered in some other festivals, were not bui'- densome. Whether the former were required before the time of Moses we are not informed. In the temple-worship described by Ezekiel, and not without good reason supposed emblematically to portray the state of things in the Christian Church, the sacrifices of the Sabbath were to be still more numerous. ^ The double sac- rifices under the law make nothing against the early origin and permanent obligation of a day of sacred rest. They were shadows of good things to come, to pass away when the substance was realized, but as types have their corresponding realities, so these sacrifices and those described by Ezekiel appear to have foreshowed not only the sacred services of the future Christian Sabbath, but the multiplication on that day of religious observances which their own simplicity, the spirituality of the worshippers, and a larger supply of Divine influence, would render a yoke that should be easy and a burden that should be light. The " holy convocations''^ which Dr. Paley further adduces as a characteristic of the Mosaical Sabbath, although in the case of the Jews connected with ritual observances that belong not to Christianity, and were more frequent and organized than in the times of the patriarchs, have always been practised from the period when men began to call on the name of the Lord down to our own day. The same law which gave authority to the Patriarchal and Jewish convocations requires " the assembling of ourselves to- gether" for the simpler services of the Christian worship. The distinction, however, between the various laws of Moses, although lost sight of in some cases, as we have seen, is at other times recognised by Dr. Paley, who does not hesitate to rank the Jewish Sabbath among merely ritual appointments. " The dis- tinction of the Sabbath," he observes, " is, in its nature, as much a positive ceremonial institution, as that of many other seasons which were appointed by the Levitical law^ to be kept holy, and to be observed by a strict rest ; as the first and seventh days of unleavened bread ; the feast of Pentecost ; the feast of Taber- nacles : and in Exodus xxiii. the Sabbath and these are recited to- 1 Num. xxviii. 9, 10. 2 Ezek. xyvj. i. ' Lev. xxiii. 3. 484 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. getlier."! Oue important difference between the Sabbath and the other institutions here compared, however, is that none of the ktter has a place in the Decalogue. Dr. Paley sees something in the recital of the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, but nothing in the recital of the twentieth chapter. He himself overturns his only proof of the preceding statement by afterwards producing cases in which " ceremonial and political duties, confessedly of partial obligation, are enumerated along with others which are natural and universal," " the distinction between positive and natural duties, like other distinctions of modern ethics, being un- known to the simplicity of ancient language."^ We object not to his taking one or other of the grounds that the juxtaposition of subjects is or is not an evidence of their character, but it is too much to urge that the Sabbath is a positive duty because classed with ceremonies, and not a moral duty because included in an enumeration of matters belonging to morals. There are undoubt- edly instances in which the two classes of subjects are intermingled, but not when laws are formally enacted or proclaimed, and when accuracy, order, and the interest and intelligent obedience of those to be ruled by them, require that they should be placed in their respective categories. And our minds must be peculiarly construc- ted or biassed, if, considering the Decalogue as consisting of laws not only of universal concern, but carefully detached from politi- cal and ceremonial statutes, and alone announced in circumstances of special solemnity and grandeur, we can discern no difference in character between a precept prohibiting idolatry or murder, and one forbidding to touch a dead body, or to plough with an ox and an ass together. The other reasons assigned by the same writer for regarding the Sabbath " as part of the peculiar law of the Jewish policy," if more consistent, are not much more weighty, than the one now examined. He says, " If the command by which the Sabbath was instituted be binding upon Christians, it must be binding as to the day, the duties, and the penalty ; in none of which it is received," He might have as well said. The command of worship given to the Jews, if binding on us, must bind us to go to Jeru- 1 Paley s Works, vol. ir. p. 29o. 2 md. pp. 297, 298. THEORIES TRIED. 485 salem at certain times for that purpose, to practise circumcision, and to observe the passover with all the other sacrifices. He might have said, The command of reverence in worship, if apply- ing to us, must require us to put off our shoes, and to direct our eyes to a holy place, made with hands. He might have said. If the law which obliged the Jews to abstain from idolatry and to honour their parents be obligatory upon us, it must be so in both cases on pain of death. Again, the observance of the Sabbath was not one of the articles enjoined by the Apostles, in Acts xv. upon them " which from among the Gentiles were turned unto God." The enumeration referred to in this passage makes nothing against the institution, as it is not complete in respect either of ritual or of moral duties, and is utterly irrelevant to the writer's purpose. But it is relevant to the purpose of proving the opposite of wha.t it is adduced to establish. The decision of the Synod of Jerusalem was, that the Gentile believers were to abstain from certain things which w^ere offensive to their Jewish brethren. And as nothing would have been more offensive to those Christians who had for- merly been Jews than the neglect of a day of rest on the part of the converts from among the heathen, the absence of any injunc- tion to keep such a day indicates that no offence existed on that score. Finally, it is affirmed that " St. Paul evidently appears to have considered the Sabbath as part of the Jewish ritual, and not obligatory upon Christians as such : ' Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a 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" (Col. ii. 16, 17). These words have' been already noticed. Let us add a very few remarks. The pas- sage goes to protect Christians against attempts to impose upon them the Jewish ceremonies of distinctions of meat, and the dis- tinctions of such days as holy days, new moons, and Sabbath-days. But the Fourth Commandment was not ceremonial. There was no ceremony in a season of rest and devotion on one day more than in the diligent labour of the other six. If the Apostle vindicated their right to keep no day holy, he also vindicated their right to occupy no day in a secular calling. If they were left free to have every man his own day of worship, they were left free also to disregard the anciently appointed season of industry. That 486 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. some professing Christians had taken up these loose notions appears from the reproof which the same Apostle addresses in another epistle to the disorderly persons who made every day a day of rest. How obvious that by the Sabbath days the Apostle cannot mean a day of holy rest absolutely viewed, but the days fixed of old among the Jews, including the particular day of the ancient Sab- bath, which as being all typical had been fulfilled in Christ, and any imposition of which now involved a rejection of him. It was with the former weekly resting- day as with circumcision, there was to be a bearing with Jewish prejudice, but as the attempt to com- pel Gentiles to be circumcised was condemned by the Apostle as an infringement of their rights, and as even involving a renuncia- tion of Christianity, so for the Jews to judge Gentile converts in regard to meats and days was also an infraction of their liberty, and an act of constructive treason against Christ as their risen Saviour, and the author of a finished redemption. This was more than the law of Moses itself had required, as Gentiles might be proselytes without being bound to the ceremonies of that law. The principles of interpretation which have thus been applied for determining the merits of various opinions in the question might be extended to others. But as this has already been done to some extent, we proceed to show that the language of prophecy appears clearly to decide the matters at issue. THEOEIES TRIED. 48' CHAPTEE III. THEORIES TRIED BY DIVINE PREDICTIONS. THIRD TEST OF OPINIONS. The Pentateucli is by far the oldest historical record. There we find it stated that the seventh day of time was blessed and sanctified by the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Various references in the history of the Patriarchs, and many vestiges of the institution among heathen nations, admit of but one explana- tion, which is, that it had been continued from the beginning of time. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, their law- giver and leader referred to the day of rest as an appointment with w^hich they were acquainted. The Saviour declared without chal- lenge, that Moses was read in the synagogue every Sabbath-da}^ We have also the testimony of Josephus and Philo, to the existence of the institution during the Jewish economy. In the writings of Isaiah, besides promises to those who should observe the Sabbath, of an everlasting name, and of a place in the house of prayer for all people, which plainly point to the times of Christianity, we have this prediction and pledge : "For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to an- other, shall all flesh cdme to worship before me, saith the Lord."^ And to mention only one other intimation regarding the perpe- tuity of the Sabbath, the Founder of Christianity said, eighteen hundred years ago, concerning the law, of which the Sabbath was a part, " Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." ^ These words have been verified down to this day. We can trace the never- failing observance of the Sabbath for eighteen centuries prior to 1 Isa. Ixvi. 22, 23. 2 >hut. v. 18. 488 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. the present time. Thus far, then, the language of Christ and of Isaiah has held true. The ordinance, indeed, has not been uni- versal, and only by some maintained in its purity, but its preser- vation and true observance among any and so many in all ages, establish the truth of the foregoing promises respecting it, and thus its own Divine authority. Nor are the instances in which the Sabbath is abolished or lost unavailing as evidence on its behalf. They are adducible to establish its Divine authority, as they are the fulfilment of another class of predictions — those, we mean, which have foretold its withdrawal as the result of its abuse. But the fulfilment of prophecy does more than prove the truth of the Divine Word as respects the promised continuance of the institution. It enables us, we conceive, to decide between contending theories on the subject, and it is to this point that we are now to call the attention of our readers. First of all, the accomplishment of prophecy settles the ques- tions that have been raised respecting the proportion of time and the particular day of the Christian Sabbath. The words lately quoted from the proi^hecies of Isaiah stand connected with his glowing descriptions of the sufi'erings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, both in His own exaltation and in His benignant reign over the earth. Of the happy times of the new heavens and the new earth, or the Christian dispensation, when the Gentiles should be brought for an ofi'ering unto the Lord out of all nations, it is declared, " And it shall come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord" (Isa. Ixvi. 23). Then, again, when the prophet Ezekiel had his vision of the Temple — a vision, which, as we have already shown, applying neither to the Jewish dispensation, nor literally to the Christian, must be considered as a figurative repre- sentation of the latter ; he was inspired to utter these words : " And it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt-ofi'erings upon the altar, and your peace-ofi'erings ; and I will accept you, saith the Lord God " (Ezek. xliii. '21). Here we have a day, a weekly day, and the eighth day, not the eighth day of a week of eight days, but the eighth day in reference to the ancient, then common, and still prevalent week, the day after its seventh day ; in other words, THEORIES TRIED. 489 the first day of the week. Two facts are unquestionable : first, that the seventh day of the Jews has never been the generally recog- nised day of rest and worship among Christians ; and, second, that the first day of the week, frequently by the Fathers called the eighth day, has ever been the Christian Sabbath. The theories, therefore, which propound respectively an " every-day Sabbath," a " no-day Sabbath," "the seventh-day Sabbath," "a half-day, or a two-or-three-hours' Sabbath each week," do not agree with the predictions to which we have referred, and are on this, as they are on other grounds, excluded from the right to compete for the honour of being Divine institutions. Further, Prophecy defines the engagements of its promised weekly holy day. That holy day is not merely named a Sabbath, a rest ; but has concomitants of duty which are incompatible alike with idleness and with secular pursuits. It was to be a day of wor- ship. They " shall come and worship before me ;" " I will make them joyful in my house of prayer ;" " It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be esta- blished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the Cod of Jacob ; and he will teach its of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem " (Isa. ii. 2, 3). Here, again, the every-day Sabbath is shown to be contrary to Scripture prediction, as it is to ScrijDture rule. A Sabbath of worldly pleasure and amusement has no place assigned to it under Christianity. A Sabbath devoted in whole or in part to the study of science and art is not provided for. Christians were to be made joyful, but it was to be in the house of prayer, and were not to do their own pleasure on God's holy day. They were to be occupied in studying nobler and more important things than science or art. Popery has fulfilled the Sabbatic predictions of Scripture in some respects, but not in the amount of time, not in intelligent devotion, not in religious instruction. The Scripture is fulfilled by those only who devote the weekly holy day, with the exception of so much time as is due to the objects of necessity and mercy, entirely to rest and religion. 490 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Prophecy, which indicates the means, indicates also the manner, of worship in Christian times. A blessing is pronounced on the man who should not only keep the Sabbath from polluting it, " but keep his hand from doing any evil" (Isa. Ivi. 2). In the same chap- ter, promises of better blessings and higher honours than those of this world are made to those who should keep God's Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Him, among which things are " lov- ing kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth :" for " in these things," He declares, " I delight ;" and to "the sons of the stranger," the Gentiles, " 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 his covenant," it is pledged that they should be made joyful, and be accepted in their worship, by Jehovah. In another chapter (Iviii.) we are informed that the observance of the Sabbath was to con- sist not only in turning away the foot from the Sabbath, from do- ing one's pleasure on God's holy day, but in calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable. The doctrines of an " every-day Sabbath," of " the Sabbath as an ecclesiastical or poli- tical arrangement," or of the Sabbath as a day that may be given partly to pleasure or business, and partly to religion, are utterly irreconcilable with the standard of excellence thus presented. It is only the doctrine of a solemn and yet benignant statute, of a careful, conscientious, and yet cheerful, affectionate Sabbatism, that, according to the words of Scripture, fulfils the claims of the insti- tution. It is the Puritan's and Covenanter's holy day, not the Continental holiday, that copies the Divine model, and it is just in proportion as this is done, that the man is happy. Pledges of happiness, prosperity, and honour, are given to the individual who thus hallows the day of rest. " Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it." " Every one" that did so was to be " made joyful." " A place and a name" " better than of sons and daughters," " an everlasting name," were to be given to all such persons. He that delighted in the Sabbath, and honoured God, not doing his own ways, nor finding his own pleasure, nor speaking his own words, was to delight himself in the Lord. And we have found, accordingly, when pointing out " the advantages" of the institution, that it brings good in every form to THEORIES TEIED. 491 the individual who duly observes it, good to his body and mind, to his moral and religious character, to his circumstances and name. The experience of the conscientious observers of the Lord's day, attests the faithfulness of Him who promises thus to reward his servants. Those certainly who have made frequent use of an instrument are competent to speak of its worth, and if, besides being men of known veracity, their evidence of its efficiency is such as every one may see in their case and try in his own, their testi- mony must be unexceptionable. Few have been more qualified by both character and profession to pronounce a correct judgment respecting the value of the Sabbath than the distinguished Sir Matthew Hale, whose views, besides, were the result of careful attention to the subject, and confirmed by the experience of a long life. " I have," are his words, " by long and sound experience found, that the due observance of this day, and of the duties of it, have been of singular comfort and advantage to me ; and I doubt not but it will prove so to you. God Almighty is the Lord of our time, and lends it to us ; and as it is but just that we should consecrate this part of tbat time to him, so I have found, by a strict and diligent observation, that 'a due observation of this day hath ever had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time, and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me ; and on the other side, when I have been negli- gent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath been un- successful and unhappy to my own secular employments ; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my ovm secu- lar employments the week following, by the manner of my passing of this day : and this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience."^ Similar was the experience of a lawyer of great talents, who on his death- bed said to his friend, " Charge every young lawyer not to do anything in the business of his profession on the Sabbath. It will injure him, and lessen the prospect of his success. I have tried it. I do not know how it is, but there is something about it very striking. My Sabbath efforts have always failed."^ We find the same experience, in the medical profession, expressed by Dr. Farre, 1 Contemplations (Lond. 1676), pp. 480, 481. - Permanent Sabbath Documents, No. i, p. £1. 492 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Mr. Hey, and, as lias been said, by one of its brightest ornaments, Boerhaave. Persons invested with the sacred office have felt in the same way. " I never find it well," was the remark of Dr. Doddridge, " on common days, when it is not so on the Lord's." To the like conclusion, " that there was a special blessing vouch- safed to the keeping of that day devoted to spiritual purposes," was Mr. Wilberforce led in his different field of labour f and he relates that he remained at home one Sabbath to write a letter to the Emperor Alexander on the abolition of the slave-trade, con- ceiving it to be his duty, and even supplicating the Divine bless- ing on the act, " yet it did not answer," he observes ; " my mind felt a weight on it, a constraint which impeded the free and un- fettered movements of the imagination or intellect ; and I am sure that this last week I might have saved for that work four times as much time as I assigned to it on Sunday."^ The instances in which mercantile men, sailors, tradesmen, and mechanics, have been sensible of a connexion between their use of the day of rest, and their success in their several undertakings, are too numerous for detail. We select one. The learned, and enterprising Captain Scoresby, in an account of onfe of his whaling expeditions, makes the following remarks : " It is worthy of observation, that in no instance, when on fishing stations, was our refraining from the or- dinary duties of our profession on the Sunday ever supposed even- tually to have been a loss to us, for we in general found, that if others who were less regardful, or had not the same view of the obligatory nature of the command respecting the Sabbath day, succeeded in their endeavours to promote the success of the voy- age, we seldom failed to procure a decided advantage in the suc- ceeding week. Independently, indeed, of the Divine blessing on honouring the Sabbath day, I found that the restraint put upon the natural inclinations of the men for pursuing the fishery at all opportunities, acted with some advantage, by proving an extraor- dinary stimulus to their exertions when they were next sent out after whales. Were it not out of place here, I could relate several instances, in which, after refraining to fish upon the Sabbath, while others were thus successfully employed, our subsequent labours suc- ceeded under circumstances so striking, that there was not, I be- 1 Memoirshy Orton, 2d ed. p. 236, n. 2 Lif", vol. ii. p. 292. 3 Life, toI. iv. p 179. THEORIES TRIED. 493 lieve, a man in tlie ship who did not consider it the effect of the Divine blessing."^ In the same ancient document, in which a blessing is pro- nounced on the individual observer of the sacred day, are benefits assured to the Sabbath-keeping community. Such a community was to ride on the high places of the earth.^ And it has been shown that the tendency and actual results of national respect for the weekly day of rest and devotion have been most beneficial to all the interests of society. Britain and America, the countries in which that day is most sacredly regarded, do indeed verify the language of the prophet, and realize the promised pre-eminence among the nations. Let the confession of M. de Montalembert, already cited,^ bear a just testimony to the truth of prophecy re- specting the Sabbath, and thereby to the Divine original of the appointment. Let the following words of other foreigners confirm his judgment, and conduct us to the conclusion which so many facts in the preceding pages conspire to establish, " Impartial men," says one, " are convinced that the political education by which the lower classes of the English nation surpass other nations — that the extraordinary wealth of England, and its supreme maritime power — are clear proofs of the blessing of God bestowed upon this nation for its distinguished Sabbath observance. Those who behold the enormous commerce of England, in the harbours, the railways, the manufactories, etc., cannot see without astonishment the quiet of the Sabbath-day."^ Another says : " Amongst the French whom the Great Exhibition has brought to London, there are some who are usefully impressed with the quiet and order which reign on the Sunday in the capital of Great Britain. I know a Koman Catholic politician, formerly Minister under Louis Philippe, who has been singularly struck by this. He said, a few days ago, to one of my acquaintance, who repeated it to me, that if it were possible to lead the French to pass their Sunday like the English, much would be gained for the repose of the mind, which would act as a moral preservative upon the soul." The writer states that, in addressing from twelve to fifteen hun- 1 Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fhhery (Edin. 1823), pp. 382, 5S3, and note. 2 Isa. Iviii. 13, 14. See also Jer. xvii. 24, 25. 3 Page 2-58. * Religious Condition of Christendom, p. 469. 4 94 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. dred persons at the Oratoire in Paris, on the 29 th of June 1851, he remarked as follows : " It is but three weeks ago that he who now addresses you was on the other side of the Channel, in the capital of Great Britain. He saw there a wonder greater than that of the immense and magnificent Crystal Palace, which encloses, as it were, the epitome and compendium of all the industrial trea- sures of the known world ; he saw a free, a peaceful, a hapjDy people, moving forward, without hindrance, and without revolu- tion in the path of progressive improvement, loving their laws, loving their Government, respecting authority, rich, prosperous in all their concerns. Would you know why, my brethren ? It is especially, and above all, because they are a people who know and invoke, at least among the majority of their members, the God that I preach to you ; it is because public worship is there offered in His temples ; it is because the day which is consecrated to Him is religiously observed ; it is because His Word is read, and prayer is offered in the family ; it is because that people are convinced that Jehovah reigns, and that there is no happiness for a nation, as there is none for a family or for an individual, but in the love of His Word and obedience to His commandments. ' Happy is the nation,' says the prophet, ' whose God is the Lord.' " 1 The universal prevalence of a day of rest and worship is fore- shown in the sacred oracles. There are declarations which sup- pose that some time everywhere is to be religiously occupied : "All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's ; and he is the governor among the nations " (Ps. xxii. 27, 28). "From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering : for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Mai. i. 11). But not only is there to be universal worship, but a seventh proportion of time, and a particular day, are to the same extent to be consecrated to sacred purposes. In confirmation of our statement, we again quote these words : " From one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come and 1 Religious Condition of Christendom, pp. 305, 306. THEORIES TRIED. 495 worship before me, saitli the Lord" (Isa. Ixvi. 23). " It shall be, that upon the eighth day," — the first day of the week, — " and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt- offerings upon the altar, and your peace-oflferings ; and I will accept you, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. xliii. 27). Although these predictions are not yet fulfilled, they have not failed, as the time for their accom- plishment, fixed and declared in the same record, is still future. The conversion of the Jews, and the removal of a professedly Christian but corrupt system, must take place, it is intimated, before the true religion can be universal. As so great an enter- prise as the regeneration of the world requires much time, we might presume that there would be evidence of its gradual pro- gress. What, then, is the religion that has for the longest period maintained its ground, and at the same time, by present appear- ances, promises to take possession of the earth ? Only the reli- gion which fully recognises the perpetual and the sacred weekly rest. Paganism, with its unenlightening, uncheering, bloody rites, whether annual, monthly, or even weekly, everywhere yields to Christianity and civilisation. Mohammedanism, with its ineflfi-. cient Friday, is on the wane. Popery has been a long-continued proof of the ignorance, immorality, and pauperism, which holy- days, with superstition and without the gospel, inflict on society ; and totters to its fall. Socinianism, depending on the merely human both for its heartless Christianity and its cold Sabbath, shows itself unable to extend or even to maintain itself The Friends, who are not all Gurneys or Clarksons as to the Sabbath, date their existence as a denomination from about the middle of the seventeenth century, and by 1852 numbered in Great Britain and Ireland from 18,000 to 20,000. The seventh-day Sabbatists have ever been a small body. The every-day Sabbatists have hitherto been not only few, but far between. And the friends of a merely ecclesiastical or political holyday have never done much to bless the world, and, happily, not much more to extend their faith. There is but one class of religionists who make steady progress, and these are Christians who believe in a Divine, per- manent, holy Sabbath. These have their missions, their converts, their sacredly observed Lord's day in every part of the world, — tokens that they are fulfilling the ancient oracles of a blessed and 496 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. extended Sabbatism, and that men of like views who shall come after them are destined to realize the completed purpose and boon. A considerable volume might be filled with the facts which show how much is done by the observers of a holy Sabbath in our day to convey the institution to their fellow-men. Let a few particu- lars, illustrating their difficulties and success in this matter, suffice. When slavery was the law and practice in the West Indies, the Sabbath was the market-day, and the day selected for the punish- ment of slaves. That was a noted time of immorality. Let us contrast with this the following : " Among other pleasing fea- tures presented by this station," it was reported of Hampden, iu Jamaica, " the progress of marriage among the negroes is not the least encouraging. The number of couples which have been mar- ried since its commencement amount to 511. A great improve- ment has taken place in regard to the observation of the Lord's day. Public worship is not only well attended, but the Sabbath is, in other respects, sanctified in a manner, which, considering the former habits of the negroes, is truly surprising. Prayer- meetings are established in every district of the congregation. Family worship is observed in many of their dwellings, unity and brotherly love prevail, parents are more anxious for the instruc- tion of their children, and more careful in watching over their morals. A Bible and Missionary Society has been formed in the congregation, which, in the first eleven months, raised £150 cur- rency. Temperance societies have also been established, which number no fewer than 593 members. A session has been formed in the congregation, which takes the entire charge of the discipline of the Church ; and though nearly all the elders are. or lately were, apprentices, they discharge the duties of their office with propriety, zeal, and prudence, firmness and fidelity. Mr. Blyth has also begun a system of family visitation, similar to what pre- vails in many of the best regulated congregations in this country." The Eev. George Blyth, the missionary at the station, says : " Altogether, this part of the island has assumed the aspect of a Christian country."^ Of Lucea, another missionary station in Jamaica, the Rev. James Watson, the missionary, reported : "The 1 Sketches by Dr. W. Brown, Secretary of the Scottish Missionary Society, in Christian Tiachtr, vol. i. p. 564. THEORIES TRIED. 497 improvement of the Black population is particularly remarkable. It is astonishing to see the change that has been wrought upon them in so short a space of time. In a merely civil point of view, it is exceedingly interesting. They seem much more cheerful, and much more attentive to matters of decency and propriety of conduct than formerly. Marriage is now rapidly advancing among them. Hundreds have left off their former mode of living, and have entered into this honourable relation within the last year. The Sabbath is almost universally observed as a day of rest by an entire cessation of everything in the shape of work." ^ As it is in Jamaica, so also in the South Sea Islands. Stewart, in his Visit to the South Seas, devotes a chapter (or letter) to a description of a Tahitian Sabbath in 1829, concluding with these words, " The whole external obseiTance of the day by the natives, in a suspension of all ordinary occupations and amusements, was such as to be worth the imitation of older and more enlightened Christian nations" (p. 253). The well-known and excellent mis- sionary, Mr. Pritchard, confirms this testimony : " On almost all the islands where the gospel has been introduced, and the people have made a profession of Christianity, a most diligent attention is paid to the public ordinances of religion. This is particularly the case in those stations which' are not visited by foreign shipping. They very strictly observe the Sabbath. Their food for the Sabbath is cooked on the Saturday, consequently none are detained from a place of worship, to cook hot dinners on the Sabbath, as is so com- mon in England even among professing Christians. They usually at- tend three services on the Sabbath. The first is a prayer-meeting held early in the morning. These meetings are generally well attended. It would be considered a great disgrace for a church member to absent himself from the prayer-meeting. All who pro- fess to feel any concern about good things will be there. Most of the natives consider it as important to attend the prayer-meeting as the preaching of the gospel. It is exceedingly interesting at these meetings to hear how particularly and afi'ectionately they pray for their missionaries, for the ministers of the gospel gener- ally, and for the increase of vital religion in their own hearts, and especially for the best of blessings to rest upon their Christian 1 Sketches by Dr. W. Brown, p. 565. 2 I 498 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. friends in Britain, who have sent them the gospel. In the fore- noon there is usually a very full attendance. Some of the chapels are so crowded, that many persons have to sit outside. On these occasions most of them are neatly dressed. Many of them take paper and pencils, and write the particulars of the discourse. But few congregations in England surpass them, in serious attention and decent behaviour in the house of God. At the close of the afternoon service many of them frequently stop, to talk over what they have heard through the day, and to pray that the seed which has been sown may spring up and produce an abundant harvest. Besides attending schools daily, they have two religious services each week."^ We find the same spirit among the converts of New Zealand : " It was customary with the missionaries on their first settling in New Zealand to erect a flag at their station on the Sabbath-day, and this was the sign for many distant tribes of natives to desist from work, or from war ; indeed, they seem to have shown at a very early period of the mission a decided respect and honour for the Sabbath, which the missionaries told them was set apart by them in honour of the ' Atua nue,' the Great Jehovah."^ Mr. Davis, a missionary, says, " Our chapel could not contain the whole of our congregation yesterday ; so that we shall have to enlarge it as soon as possible. Eipi and his party continue to lis- ten with attention, and are steady in their attendance on the means of grace. The manner in which the Lord's day is kept by this tribe would shame many country parishes in England, even where the gospel is faithfully preached. Their firewood is always pre- pared, and their potatoes scraped and got ready, on the Saturday afternoon, to be cooked on the Sunday ; and this is no new thing, as they have proceeded in this way now for a long time."^ We must content ourselves with only a few more illustrations, de- rived from the lately published and very interesting volume. Nine- teen Years in Polynesia, by the Rev. George Turner : " We had the pleasure of spending a Sabbath at Eromanga, and met with about one hundred and fifty of the people in their little chapel. All were quiet and orderly. It thrilled our inmost soul to hear them, 1 Pritchard's Missionary Reward, p. 78-80. 2 Missioimry Guide-Book, p. 279. 3 Ramsden's Missions, p. 164. THEORIES TRIED. 499 as led by Mrs. Gordon, strike up the time of ' New Lydia,' and also the translation and tune of 'There is a happy land.' Mr. Macfarlane and I addressed them through Mr. Gordon. They were startled and deeply interested, as I told them of former times, and to show them that we were different from other white men who had visited their shores" (pp. 487, 488). "We left Ilea early on the morning bound for Guamha, ]\Ir. Creagh's station, there to land Mr. Jones, and the supplies of Mr. Creagh, and his native teachers. We were close in by nine a.m., on Sabbath, when Mr. Jones, Mr. Turpie, the first ofiicer, and I went on shore in the whale-boat. As we reached the beach, I had a vivid recol- lection of the naked savage crowd Mr. Murray and I saw there on my first visit fourteen years ago. Then some were painted from head to foot, and all were armed with clubs, spears, or tomahawks. Old leui gave the word of command, when an avenue was formed for us to walk up through the motley group, to his large round house, where we talked to them of Christ, and his peaceful king- dom, and entreated them to abandon heathenism and embrace the gospel. But how changed the scene now ! As Mr. Jones, Mr. Turpie, and I walked up from the boat, all was quiet. It was the hour of Divine service, and the people were assembled in the chapel on the rising ground a little to the left. AVe walked up to the place, a stone building eighty feet by sixty, looked in at the door, and saw that it was filled with 900 attentive worshippers. Mr. Creagh was in the pulpit, and a black precentor stood leading the whole in one harmonious song of praise. I felt it quite overpowering, as we walked up the aisle, and took our places in the missionary's pew. Mr. Creagh preached, and as it was their day for administering the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, we had the further pleasure of uniting, at the close of the morning service, with the church of ninety-four mem- bers, in commemorating the death of Christ" (pp. 513, 514). " In summing up our progress in these islands just visited, where twenty years ago we had not a single missionary, or a single convert from heathenism, and at the very entrance to which John Williams then fell, we find that, out of a population, in the twelve islands which we now occupy, of about 65,500 souls, we have 19,743 who have renounced heathenism, and are pro- 500 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. fessedly Christian. Of these there are 645 church members, and 689 who are candidates for admission to the church. And there are now labouring among them ten European missionaries, and 231 native teachers and assistants. Three printing-presses, also, are at work, especially devoted to the Papuan vernacular of the respective islands" (p. 533). Thus the terms of prophecy respecting the Sabbath of Chris- tianity, have been fulfilled only by the theory which recognises the first day of the week as consecrated by Divine authority to sacred rest and service. While other theories, when tried by this test, are found wanting, that which has been generally received and practised by Christians proves itself to be of God, and destined to continue to the end of time, as well as to be universal in the earth. ANTI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 501 CHAPTER IV. PROPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOR A HOLY SABBATH. There are not a few men who seem to be deficient in the capacity of knowing when it is well with them in any situation, and consequently to be wanting in the wisdom that would direct them to " let well alone." It is worse stiU when any one is ignorant of his highest mercies, " the things that belong to his peace." Those who quarrel with the day of rest combine both kinds of folly. Not content with the worry of six days, they must prolong it into the seventh, and, grudging the pause and respite of one day in the week, they will not, on the one hand, avail themselves of it as an indispensable means of preparation for " the rest that remaineth for the people of God ;" or, on the other, take the full use of its facilities for mere repose of mind and body, as some compensation for the coming long future when they can have no rest day or night. It is such men, we believe, . who are satisfied neither with the outer nor with the inner peace of the Sabbath, and would have a sacred day mutilated or abolished. It is not to be supposed that with such blindness to their own weal, to what is " w^ell " in their lot, they should be fully aware of the true reason for their wishes respecting the institution. At all events they have assigned a reason, and one involving a fiction as great as ever was invented, or attempted to be palmed on human credulity — the notion that a carefully observed Sabbath injures health, and genders and fosters vice, especially a desire for intoxicating drink. For these evils they propose, as a remedy, the removal of their supposed cause, and the substitution for a day of sacred rest, of one devoted in part at least to recreation and amusement, or to the study of science and of the arts. It will be the object of this chapter to show that 502 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. such expedients are insufficient and unnecessary for their alleged purpose. Let us look, in the first instance, to the scheme which proposes an entire or partial holiday, and we shall see that it is condemned by all experience, alike by that of a sacred and by that of a merry- making day. The necessity of a weekly day of rest to the physical welfare of men is admitted even by those who are un- friendly to a holy Sabbath. " The infidel," says one, " can have no interest in revoking its blessings, or accelerating its ruin. He may laugh at the ravings of fanaticism, or sneer at the fears and reasoning of inflamed zeal ; but the substantial benefits of the Sabbath he is as anxious to preserve as any." ^ " There is no one," observes another, " who denies that a day of repose and relaxation from labour once a week is for the benefit of the working-classes, and there is no one who would wish to do away with that usage. It is nearly the only breathing-time in a life of toil which the poor man enjoys," 2 We accept these statements as in so far a testimony, and, coming from such quarters, an important testimony, in favour of a Sabbatic institution. But when we are told, as we are by the former writer, and by others, that in advancing proofs of the physical advantages of the insti- tution we only " beat the winds," we must crave liberty to dissent from the opinion, and to show that such a task, so far from being bootless, as merely establishing a dogma generally received and plainly true, is one that is called for, just because it is fitted to produce the convictions which the quotations now given express, and to lead their authors and others to the further knowledge and conclusions on the subject which it is evident they have not yet reached. Let it be remarked, that certain views may not be rejected, and yet not be sufficiently influential on the conduct, and that it is on this account requisite frequently to re-produce, illustrate, and enforce them, that they may take more of the shape of living, practical principles in the minds of those by whom they are professedly held. But we confidently deny the allega- tion of a universally existing belief as to the utility of the Sabbath, viewed even simply as a day of rest. Who does not know that 1 A Voice from the Workshop, p. 15. 2 Speech of James Ayton, Esq., 1847, p. 4. ANTI SABBATIC SCHEMES. 503 many voluntarily labour on that day, and that many require such labour from their servants ? Is it possible that these persons are convinced of the physical necessity of a weekly day of rest 1 Who, again, does not know that the call of so many for a Sabbath of amusement and pleasure, either in whole or in part, is in reality the demand of such a mode of spending its hours as must subject multitudes to continual labour and its fatal results, that others may enjoy rest and indulgence ? Do those men sincerely believe that a Sabbath-day is desirable as a season of respite from the toils of life, who plead for "a system, which providing for the gain of some, and the recreation, the amusement, and the vices of others, at the expense of their fellows, has a direct tendency to undermine health, exhaust the strength, and shorten the lives of those who are its victims f'^ On the supposition, so contrary to all experience, that no vice were indulged, it is an unanswerable objection to Sunday excursions by trains and other- wise, and to all public amusements on that day, that the health of thousands, employed in affording the means of pleasure to others, is necessarily sacrificed. The superiority of a day of sacred rest to that which some would put in its place appears in this, as in other respects, that its tendency, like the mission of its Lord, is not to destroy but to save life. According to its wise and benevolent provisions, families may have all that is conducive to health and happiness without the drawback of slavery and pain to any one, and hundreds may have the means of public instruc- tion and enjoyment at the cost of a measure of exertion on the part of one individual which, judging from the longevity of his class, 7iecessitates no bodily harm. There is another great mistake or fallacy in the language employed on this subject by those who profess to be satisfied as to the physical necessity of a Sabbath, which they would nevertheless alienate from what they are pleased to call puritanical practices. They speak and write in seeming ignorance or forgetfulness, that the principal, if not almost the entire evidence in favour of such a day goes to prove the import- ance of a Christian Sabbath, while we have no evidence of the sanitary benefit of a day consumed in idleness, in recreation, or even in the study of nature or science. Whence have those per- 1 PetitioD of 641 Physicians and Surgeons in London. •504 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. sons almost any idea at all of a Sabbath but from the observance around them of the Sabbath of Christianity 1 Whence, especially, have they much proof of the utility of such a day but from facts connected with that observance 1 Let them do justice to the truth, and own that they have derived the very conception of a weekly day of rest from Revelation, or from its friends, and that they know little or nothing of its physical advantages, except in so far as these have appeared in its contrasted honour and neglect as a religious institute. In the absence of evidence that a weekly day of rest is capable of yielding greater or even equal benefit to health by being wholly or partially severed from religion, they are not authorized to affirm, as some confidently do, that the separation would be productive of any such effect. They are still less warranted to employ the facts which demonstrate its benefi- cent influence as a Christian appointment, for the purpose of evincing its excellence in any other character. Until we have some assurance that a community, or any portion of it, could be persuaded to spend a seventh day in harmless amusement, or in listening to lectures on science and art, with the result, too, of a larger accession to health than arises from a religiously employed Sabbath, it would, simply on grounds of expediency, be extremely foolish to part with a present real for a future imaginary good. This experiment would be the more unwise that we already have enough in ascertained principles and facts to enable us to predict its complete failure. The continental Sabbath is precisely such an institution as many in our land seem ambitious to set up. But we have yet to learn that the Sabbath abroad has achieved more for the physical nature of Frenchmen or Germans than the Sabbath at home has done for that of Scotsmen or Englishmen. Let Paris under its first revolution warn us of the health-consum- ing and life-destroying orgies that would attend the worship of Nature and Science, as surely as they waited on the rites of the Goddess of Reason. Let the wasting profligacy which followed the republication of the Book of Sports tell us what would be the effect of reviving a Sabbath of pleasure. In the intemperance, the jaded appearance, the reluctant, tardy return to work, of Sunday pleasure-seekers, we have already specimens of the wider-spread evil which would ensue, if the religious occupations of the day ANTI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 505 were generally exchanged for the delights of the rural excursion or the excitements of the tea-garden. " Physiologically consi- dered," to employ the words of Dr. Farre, " power saved is power gained, and the waste of power from every kind of excitement defeats the purpose of the day. So that on the Sabbath the labouring man is expending the powers of his body, instead of husbanding them for the following week, and chiefly if he be engaged in drinking."^ Take away the religion of the Sabbath, and you remove the chief if not the only barrier in such a country as this against the encroaching covetousness of one class and the perpetual slavery of another — evils, of which the least enormity is, that they prey upon the flesh, blood, and bones of their victims. " If," says the Times, " the sacred character of the day be once obscured, there would not remain behind any influence strong enough to keep a thrifty tradesman from his counter for twelve hours together. A man who would observe the day as a Sabbath would retrench it as a holiday, and thus competition and imitation would at length bring all to the common level of universal pro- faneness and continuous toil." ^ And the amplest experience will be found to confirm the following statement of men well acquainted with the human constitution : " While they are most especially called to minister to the physical suff'erings of their fellow-crea- tures, your petitioners cannot overlook the close relation subsist- ing between moral and physical disease, or entertain the hope that any plans which do not make full provision for their spiritual as well as their physical necessities will eff'ect any great or permanent improvement in the health or habits of the labouring population "^ But it is said that all the intellectual benefit which a religious Sabbath is supposed to yield might be attained by means still more consonant to the constitution of the human mind, and more eff"ectual for its elevation. " You boast," it is aflirmed, " of the power of your day of preaching and prayer, but is there not the alternative of a Crystal Palace, or of lecture-rooms supplied with facilities for the study of science and the arts, and would not this 1 Report on the Observance of the Lord's Day (1832), p. 118. 2 Editorial Article, July 14, 1848. 3 Petition of 641 Phypicians and Surgeons against the Opening of the Crystal Palace on Sabbath. 506 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. be a much better means of informing and invigorating the intel- lect, as well as of promoting health, than the immuring, dull, and deadening engagements of a day devoted to religion ?" We might satisfy ourselves by referring to the observations already made, on the " Intellectual Adaptations of the Sabbath," as a sufficient reply, so far as principles are concerned, to these questions. If the views there advanced be just, they ought to satisfy the propounders of a weekly day of literary and scientific instruction as a substitute for a religious Sabbath, that such a scheme could not for any considerable period be maintained or even come into general observance, for want of some adequate authority to impose on the world a common time for any species of secular studies ; that it w^ould fail of adaptation to all classes, since it would afford no relief from customary toil to at least two large portions of Society, to the many servants whose physical labour would be required for the carrying out of its designs, and to the cultivators of science, literature, and the arts, who would be without the change of thought so essential to the refreshment and renovation of their powers, and to their energy and success in the education of their fellow-men ; and that its topics and busi- ness would exert but a feeble influence over the public mind com- pared with religion, having no similar response in the human conscience, and no text-book like the Bible, which, never yet either falsified or improved by the results of inquiry, or by the progress of discovery, has remained for ages down to this hour the most instructive, interesting, and powerful of all books. The allegation of dulness as attaching to a day spent in the duties of religion has been disposed of in a former part of this work (pp. 230-235). We shall further say of it only, that it could be hazarded by no man who had not coloured the day and its observers with the dark shade of his own spirit. But the ques- tions admit of reply from the testimony of experience, and if in addition to the evidence of fact already adduced in the portion of this volume referred to, we examine for a little the comparative claims of the proposed expedient, we shall have said all that is necessary to prove not only the inadequacy of this, and, indeed, of any expedient that would displace the Sabbath ; but to make it evident that results harmonize with principles in establishing AXTI SABBATIC SCHEMES. 507 the pre-eminent adaptation of the Sabbath to the constitution and improvement of the human mind. Looking then, first, at the jjracticabilitT/ of the measures under consideration, we find the evidence to be decisive in favour of a sacred day. It is an important circumstance that there never has been an instance of a Sabbatic institution apart from some kind of religion. This has not been owing to the want of opportuni- ties, of endeavours, or even of partially successfid eftbrts to found such an institution. In this country, and in many others, no man is compelled to keep a sacred Sabbath ; any one may not only abstain from going to a place of worship, but may employ the day in the study of science, either individually or socially. Such things have been done. The French converted their churches into temples of so-called Reason, where public aff'airs were descanted on, moral orations pronounced, and political hymns sung. The Socinians in London had " several debating clubs established among them in the metropolis on the Lord's day."^ There have been rejecters of Christianity who have had their assemblies on the first day of the week for their edification in unbelief. And yet the supporters of these and similar schemes, wdth the idea and all the details of the working of a Sabbath be- fore their eyes, with the convenience of a day in general observ- ance on which to attempt their supposed improvements, with the influence of man's aversion to what is sacred in favour of their designs, and with all their concessions, moreover, to the religious convictions and customs of society, have never been able to secure more than a very partial and temporary adoption of a weekly day for instruction, whether in infidelity or in any merely secular matter. Avarice and the love of animal pleasure have ever proved more than a match for such devices. It is religion alone that has provided a Sabbath suited to all men, established it against the opposition of the strongest human passions, and main- tained it in all ages. From the earliest period of authentic history to the present time, the world has never wanted its seventh-day festival. Wherever Christianity has prevailed, it has carried its Sabbath along with it. And we have only to examine the records of modern missions to be convinced how admirably adapted the 1 Works of Robert Hall (1839), vol. v. p. L39. 508 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. institution is to men in every clime ; how speedily and effectually it displaces the old customs when its religion has been embraced, and how firm a lodgement it effects in the consciences and affec- tions of the converts. On the score, then, of practicability, it has the decided evidence of experience in its favour, while all such evidence pronounces the proposed substitute to be a hopeless project. Let us now turn to another criterion of the intellectual adapta- tion of a seventh-day, according as it is employed in religious services, or in other means of mental improvement ; we mean power or efficiency, and let us see what facts disclose on this point. If it be said that the religious institution has so pre- occupied men's minds as to preclude a fair trial of other expedi- ents which have but rarely been invested with a formal appoint- ment, we reply, that considering the facilities and favourable feelings for a change already mentioned, we can see nothing in all this but a testimony to the efficiency of a sacred, and the imbe- cility of a secular Sabbath. That surely which is too feeble to struggle into general use, or to maintain its ground, promises no good should it by any possibility be brought into full operation. That, on the other hand, which, with the whole tide of human immorality set in against it, has nevertheless prevailed in the world, proclaims thereby its power to reign. But it is not true that the former has not had a sufficient trial. It was the subject of experiment, under a formal appointment, for ten years in France, the residt of which was that it had to take refuge in re- ligion. There are many in our own land engaged in the pursuit of knowledge who never keep a religious holiday, and who enjoy the freedom from interruption in their studies which such a day secures. This state of things has long existed, and is to be found in other countries as well. In all Popish lands the Lord's day is, for the most part, free to be applied to mental exercises or to any- thing else, and will be taken advantage of for the former purpose by some of each community. Add to these cases that of the far greater proportion of mankind who have been without the re- straints of a sacred day, and who therefore have had more time for making acquisitions in learning. It appears, therefore, that the proposed and other methods of intellectual discipline which ANTI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 509 have been deemed worthy to supplaut the Christian Sabbath have been sufficiently tried to enable us to judge of their merits. And we are willing to accept the history of the latter, circumscribed and abated though its proper influence has been by the keenest opposition, as furnishing the means of deciding on its fitness as an instrument of mental improvement. To that history, as for- merly presented in a summary form, we add only the comprehen- sive words of Jortin : " To whom are we indebted," asks the learned writer, " for the knowledge of antiquities, sacred and secu- lar, for everything that is called philology or polite literature 1 To Christians. To whom for grammars and dictionaries of the learned languages 1 To Christians. To whom for chronology, and the con- tinuation of history through many centuries 1 To Christians. To whom for rational systems of morality and of natural religion ? To Christians. To whom for improvements in natural philosophy, and for the application of these discoveries to religious purposes 1 To Christians. To whom for metaphysical researches carried as far as the subject will permit ? To Christians. To whom for juris- prudence and political knowledge, and for settling the rights of subjects, both civil and religious, upon a proper foundation ? To Christians."^ The charge of immoral tendency preferred against the strict observance of the Lord's day finds a thorough refutation in cer- tain moral contrasts furnished by the annals of our country. In briefly tracing these contrasts we shall see enough to justify Foster's eulogium, that •' the Sabbath is a remarkable appointment for raising the general tenor of moral existence," and the words of Blackstone and Pollok : "A corruption of morals usually fol- lows a profanation of the Sabbath ;" " Sure sign, whenever seen, That holiness is dying in a land, The Sabbath was profaned and set at nought." How dissimilar was England when above one hundred murders had been committed in the kingdom by ecclesiastics, of whom not one had been punished so much as with degradation, the punish- ment enjoined by the canons, to England in the time of Queen 1 Jortin's Sermons, vol. vii. pp. 373, 374. 0 1 0 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Elizabeth ! What an alteration in the other direction followed the publication and republication of the Book of SjMrts, which opened the flood-gates to all kinds of licentiousness ! Mark the improvement which was the result of a change of measures. Never were the claims of the Lord's day more ably defended and enforced from the pulpit and the press, or more zealously complied with in the practice of the people, than during the times of the Commonwealth and of the preceding struggles. " You might walk the streets [of London] on the evening of the Lord's day," as Neal observes of " the people in the Parliament quarters," " without seeing an idle person or hearing anything but the voice of prayer or praise from churches and private houses." ^ He further says that there were no gaming-houses nor houses of pleasure, nor was there any profane swearing nor any kind of debauchery to be seen or heard in the streets.^ Keferring to the period when the monarchy had been overturned, he remarks : " In the midst of all these disorders there was a very great appearance of sobriety both in city and country ; the indefatigable pains of the Presby- terian ministers in catechizing, instructing, and visiting their parishioners, can never be sufficiently commended. The whole nation was civilized, and considerably improved in sound know- ledge."^ Add the testimony of Bishop Burnet : "There had been a face of gravity and piety in the former administration ; there was good justice done, and vice was suppressed and punished, so that we always reckon the eight years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity." Compare with those years some later periods when the Sabbath law was not so obeyed : the time, for example, of Charles ii., when " religion, which had been the shion of the late times, was universally discountenanced, those who observed the Sabbath, scrupled profane swearing, etc., being branded as fanatics, and the exorbitant vices of the Court spread over the whole nation, and occasioned so general a licentiousness as to require the king's notice of it in addressing the Parliament ;" * and the days of Walpole, when corruption was so notorious as to elicit from that statesman the saying, that " every man had his price ;" and when London itself was infected with banditti, so that 1 History of the Puritans, ii. 591. 2 Ibid. 594. 3 Ibid. iv. 18. * Ibid. iv. 354, 355. ANTI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 511 many gentlemen were robbed and even murdered on the public streets in open day. Let us observe the opposite effect of a con- tinued respect for the institution among the Puritans who were driven from their country, as well as among their descendants. The Pilgrim Fathers took refuge in Holland. But, as Mather, in his Magnalia, says, "they saw that, whatever banks the Dutch had against the inroads of the sea, they had not sufficient ones against a flood of manifold profaneness ; they could not with ten years' endeavour bring their neighbours particularly to any suitable observation of the Lord's day, without which they knew that all practical religion must wither miserably."^ So they resolved to leave Holland. What character they maintained while in that country may be known from the testimony of the magistrates of Leyden, who, while reproving the Walloons, say, " These English have lived now ten years among us, and yet we never had any accusation against any of them, whereas your quarrels are continual." ^ After this noble race had been settled for one hundred years in America, they are found persevering in a dutiful respect to the Sabbath and its sacred services, and in a course of practical morality becoming their principles and profession of religion. The same alternations of good and evil, arising from the same causes, as are presented in the history of England, appear in that of Scotland. The interval between her first and second Reformations was marked by a very efficient system of Christian instruction, and by the " very healthful moral condition of her people,"^ the efforts of the bishops who were introduced by the Court, in propagating their views of religion, and in attempting to bring the observance of the Sabbath into conformity to that encouraged by royal proclamation, serving to stimulate the zeal and exertions of the faithful ministers of the land. The period, again, from the second Reformation to the Restoration of the Monarchy was even more distinguished by the religious and moral elevation of the country. Kirktou's account of its concluding years is well known. We give a portion of it : " In the interval betwixt the two kings, religion advanced the greatest step it had made for many years. Now, the ministry 1 Mather's Magnalia, p. 5. 2 [hid. p. 6. 3 Chalmers's Works, vol. xvi. p. 289. 512 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. was notably purified, the magistracy was altered, and the people strangely refined. No scandalous person could live, no scandal could be concealed in all Scotland, so strict a correspondence there was betwixt ministers and congregations. At the king's re- turn every parish had a minister, every village had a school, every family almost had a Bible, yea, in most of the country all the children of age could read the Scriptures, and were provided of Bibles, either by the parents or their ministers. I have lived many years in a parish where I never heard an oath, and you might have ridden many miles before you heard any. Also, you could not for a great part of the country, have lodged in a family where the Lord was not worshipped by reading, singing, and public prayer. Nobody complained more of our Church govern- ment than our taverners, whose ordinary lamentation was, their trade was broke, people were become so sober." ^ In this state of things Charles ii. ascended the throne. This event was soon followed by an attempt to enforce Episcopacy upon the Scottish nation, which gave rise to a war of about twenty-eight years' duration. The act for the establishment of parochial schools was repealed. Three hundred and fifty ministers were ejected from their parishes, and forbidden to preach even in the fields, or to approach within twenty miles of their former charges. In their place were appointed men whom Burnet describes as " mean and despicable in all respects, the w^orst preachers he ever heard, ignorant to a reproach, and many of them openly vicious." ^ The Revolution, indeed, put an end to persecution, rescinded the acts establishing a form of religion opposed to the wishes of the people, and led to the restoration of the parochial schools. But it is not surprising that the evils which had been inflicted by a tyrannical govern- ment, a brutal soldiery, and a clergy sunk in sloth, ignorance, and vice, should not cease with their causes, particularly as hundreds of these clergy were retained in their charges. So late, accord- ingly, as 1G98, ten years after the Revolution, there were, accord- ing to Fletcher of Saltoun, 200,000 people who subsisted by begging from door to door, and the half of whom were vagabonds, living without any regard or submission either to the laws of the 1 Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, pp. 48, 49, 64, 65. 2 History of his own Times (Edit, of 1S50), p. 103. A^^TI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 513 land, or even those of God and natm-e ; robbing, murdering, and at country weddings, markets, burials, and on other public occa- sions, to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together. But how improved the times when Scotland had begun to recover from the effects of political oppression, and of anti-Sabbatic influences, and to feel the reform- ing power of its religious faith and institutions. The following is the testimony of an Englishman, who sojourned in Glasgow in 1703, to the good morals of that city and its neighbourhood : " All the while he was there he never saw any drunk, nor heard any swear, and in all the inns of the road to that part of Scot- land, they had family worship performed."^ We add the remark- able attestation of Scottish morality in general by another English- man, Defoe, who writes thus of the state of matters in 1717: " The people are restrained in the ordinary practice of common immoralities, such as swearing, 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 sworn 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 very little children on the street."^ The same contrasts are exhibited in our own day. We shall be told, indeed, of the drunkenness which has brought a stigma upon the best Sabbath-keeping country in the world, and on one of its most God-fearing cities. Much might be said of the exag- gerations of the evil in both cases. But into this question it is not necessary for us to enter. Let us take the case of Glasgow, where, after allowing for over-statement, it is admitted that a ra- pidly accumulating population, including vast hordes of immi- grants from various parts of the world, are in many instances re- J Works of Matthew Henry (1853), vol. i. p. 585. - Memoirs of the Church of Scotland (1844), p. 353. 2 K •514 THE SABBATH VINDICATE]). gardless of the laws of sobriety. Here two instances of moral contrast are presented which are favourable to our argument. One of these is, of Glasgow in 1703, when, as we have lately seen at- tested, not a drunkard was to be seen in that city, with Glasgow in 18G1. It will surely not be pretended that the law of the Sabbath is better observed or better enforced in the latter than it was in the former year. The reverse is the fact. What, then, has that law to do with the immorality of Glasgow 1 The commer- cial 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. The other contrast is between the distinguished excellence of the many who honour the day, and the moral and physical degradation of the too numerous class who despise it. Intemperance and profaneness are both cause and eifect, while it is true everywhere that the men who most respect the Sabbath are the most moral in all re- spects in their own conduct, and almost the only persons who do anything in their localities for promoting sobriety and every virtue among their neighbours. Let those who will not receive such views on the testimony of all history, and on the evidence of the most palpable facts before their eyes, instead of indulging in vague and unfounded aspersions of the best of characters, submit the matter to the most sifting statistical inquiry. On such a trial the friends of religion might peril the whole case, having no desire to stand by any institution that is injurious to good conduct, but at the same time having no doubt that the result would be found to be, that the most exact observers of the Sabbath are generally the most temperate members of society, and that Sabbath-breakers sind drunkards are usually one and the same class of men. But when we think of a higher style of vuiue than mere immu- nity from the more flagrant enormities, we in vain look for its prevalence to any extent except among that class who devoutly regard the sacred day. It is among them that we And our philan- thropists, the men, too, who brave the hazards or suffer the privations of a residence in unpropitious climates, and among savage tribes, solely for the spiritual good of their fellow-creatures, the persons, moreover, who dive into the darkest, filthiest, and most ANTI-SABBATIC SCHEMES. 515 dangerous haunts of wickedness in our large cities, with the view of reclaiming the inhabitants from ignorance, WTetchedness, and crime, or who, while others care not for the neglected and profli- gate except to scowl upon them as they cross their path, patiently laboiu- in the self-denied and arduous work of instructing the young that they may rescue them from ruin, and guide them in the path of purity and happiness. What scheme, indeed, for enhghtening the ignorant, reforming the immoral, relieving poverty, abating disease, and comforting sorrow, has not among its principal pa- trons, and most active auxiliaries, the very men whom the thought- less revile as hypocrites, because they are faithful to what they hold to be a Divine and benignant law, the law of the Sabbath '\ 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 had 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 objects of their abuse a term so notoriously, wickedly, and stu])idly inapposite. 516 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. CHAPTEE V. DESECRATION OF THE SABBATH AT HOME AND ABROAD. It has been too indiscriminately and confidently affirmed that the Jews ^ere required to keep the Sabbath with a strictness which is not demanded of Christians, It is true that the institu- tion as belonging to the Mosaic economy involved more physical labour, than is now necessary, and that its judicial penalty imparted to it a severity which is not congenial to the free spirit of Chris- tianity. But with the exception of such circumstances, which be- longed to a temporary economy, to the accidents not the sub- stance of the Sabbatic law, we are under that law as much as the Jews were. It has not modified to Christians the other precepts of the Decalogue that they too have been detached from the Levi- tical ceremonies and the political law of Judaism. No one will affirm that a Christian is not to be as strictly obedient to parents, or as rigidly truthful and honest in his dealings, as was the Jew. The prohibition to the latter of going out of his place on the seventh day, refers to the unnecessary work of gathering manna, on that day. The law forbidding the kindling of a fire on the Sabbath must, from its connexion with the account of the rearing of the tabernacle, and from our Lord's exposition of the Fourth Commandment, in which he vindicates the performance of works of necessity and mercy on the day of rest, be understood of such an action as had respect to secular work, or as was not indispen- sable. The Jews, no doubt, made the law of the Sabbath rigorous by their additions to its requirements, but we are to take our views of Sabbatical duties from the Bible, and not from the opinions or practices of its corrupters. The privileges of Chris- tians are greater than those of the ancients ; but as it would be no privilege to be less truthful and honest than they were re- DESECRATION EXTENT. 517 quired to be, so it would he no blessing, whether for body or soul, to have the day of sacred rest abridged. The addition which Christianity makes to our privileges is designed and fitted to raise us to closer conformity to the demands of the law. It is never the exactness of compliance with the letter of any law that the Scriptures condemn, but attention to the mere letter — the form without the power of godliness. Having set forth so fully the duties of the Sabbath, it is not necessary that we should enlarge on those omissions and acts by which the institution is profaned. We will do little more than name them as they are admirably presented in the Westminster Shorter' Catechism. The Sabbath is profaned by the omission of its duties. If the house of God be forsaken, if the preaching of the Gospel, the public celebration of Divine praise, and the offer- ing of prayer, collecting for the poor, observing the Lord's Supper, and the cultivation of domestic and personal piety be neglected, not only are these ordinances and claims of our religion set at nought, but the day of the Lord is not devoted to some of its most sacred and important objects. The day is profaned by idle- ness. To take advantage of its leisure for doing nothing, is to pervert the day of Him who rose early on the first day of the week, and, both before and after His resurrection, redeemed in holy and beneficent works the season sacred to the immediate ser- vice of God. The Lord's day is profaned by the careless perform- ance of its duties. All these should be performed with the vigour and ardour which love and delight inspire, and not in the spirit and manner thus described : "Behold, what a weariness is it" (Mai. i. 1 2, et seq.) " When will the new moon be gone, that Ave may sell corn ? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat f (Am. viii. 4, 5). The Lord's day is profaned by the doing on it of anything which is in itself sinful. Whatever the sin — intemperance or theft, for example — it is made double by being perpetrated on that day. " Moreover, this they have done unto me ; they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it ; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house " (Ezek. xxiii. 38, 39). The Lord's day is profaned by unnecessary thoughts about secular mat- 518 THE SABBATH VINDICATED, tei-s. The people of Israel are blamed because tlieir hearts on the Sabbath and in the sanctuary went after their covetousness. AVe are not to find our own pleasure on that day ; these things " choke the word," interfere with every spiritual exercise and enjoyment, and are offensive to Him who demands our whole attention and interest on His own day. And he who has faith in God will comply with His requirement, casting all his care upon Him, and seeking his happiness in the things that are above. The Lord's day is profaned by unnecessary ivords about the world. " Not speak- ing thine own words." This " honours the Lord " (Isa. Iviii. 13). And the Lord's day is profaned by unnecessary secular ivorh. Not doing our own ways on that day honours Jehovah {Ibid.) SABBATH DESECRATION IN THIS COUNTRY. It is the confession of foreigners, as we have before noticed, that in no country is the Lord's day so well observed as in our own, unless it be in some parts of America. But to compare the state of Sabbath observance with that of other lands, and not with the standard of piety and morals in the Scriptures, and to rest satisfied with our condition, would not be wise. While others, judging of us by themselves, bestow commendation, we, estimating ourselves by " the law and the testimony," shall see so much in our own conduct to condemn as ought to fill us with shame on account of our transgressions of the Divine law. And as this volume is especially intended for the good of our own (jountrymen, it is proper to be more particular in the scrutiny of our errors than we should deem necessary in searching into those of our neighbours. The Lord's day is extensively desecrated in this country by secu- lar labour. We should be very inconsiderate or ungrateful if we did not cordially acknowledge the manifold advantages enjoyed by us under the British Government, and the benefit which it has done to the Sabbath cause by its resistance of attempts to assimi- late its character to that of the Continent. But one of the ex- pressions of right feeling tov/ards our rulers is to show them wherein they err. And it is under the influence of this feeling, we trust, that we must condemn any measure of theirs by which DESECRATION EXTENT. 519 the law of a higher power is transgressed. We will advert to two forms in which they are accessory to the infraction of the Divine law by patronizing secular labour on the holy Sabbath. One is in the department of Police. The Metropolitan and City Police Force form a large body, who although appointed to be guar- dians of property and of tlie public peace, in general " live al- most without regard to religion or thought of another world, few if any of them enjoying at any time an uninterrupted Sabbath.'" Measures were adopted some years ago for securing the attendance on Divine service, on the Lord's day, of those of them who were not on duty, but no means of this nature will avail so long as the number of men is so inadequate to the amount of the duty to be done. It is certainly most unjust to these servants of the public, and most impolitic, as all wrong must be, to commit to them an amount of service which precludes a due attention on their part to their moral and religious interests. The other form in which the Divine law is set aside by the law of man in this land is in the business which is authorized to be done on the Sabbath in the department of the Post-Office, involv- ing thousands of persons in multifarious labours connected with the running of mails, and the sorting, despatching, and delivery of letters, not to mention a far greater number who by these means are induced to occupy themselves in the reading and writing of letters, and the reading of newspapers on the Lord's day. To this may be added the labour which the system produces a*s acted on in the Colonies. It is truly gratifying to reflect that there is a considerable, we trust a growing number of our nobility and gentry, who esteem it their highest honour to obey the laws of the Most High, but with too many the Lord's day is the selected time for travelling or for entertainments, and forms no exception to the parade with which they appear in the scenes of public resort. For their convenience and pleasure the labours of thousands, whom the preceding week has sufficiently employed and exhausted, must be drawn upon, to the abridgment of liberty and life, and to the ruin of the soul. Medical men, it is admitted, are occasionally under the neces- i>ity of practising their art on this day. But how many calls are made, prescriptions written, and surgical operations performed. 520 VINDICATION OF THE SABBATH. which might have been arranged to occur on another day 1 Some of our best employed and ablest practitioners have guided their affairs with such discretion and diligence as to admit of their regu- lar attendance in the house of prayer. It is sad that persons who so well know the need which the physical system has of a periodi- cal rest should act in opposition to their knowledge, and in viola- tion of their own rules ; and that, familiar with disease and death, they should lose the best season for pondering their own coming change, and teach others to go and do likewise. There are many of the legal profession to whom the Sabbath brings no rest. Forgetful of the law of God, their care is to study the rules of human jurisprudence, and the laws of the land. When they ought to be making ready for the last assize, and securing the inheritance that fadeth not away, they are too often engaged in preparing to plead before an earthly tribunal, or in examining the titles to property that must soon pass from the possessors into other hands. Important transactions in themselves, but wofully mistimed ! " I do not think," said a Scottish lawyer, when ex- amined by a Committee of the House of Commons, " that in Edinburgh there are any who transact as much business on Sun- day as on other days ; but there are many, I believe, who do caiTy on business, more or less, upon that day. I know at the same time that there is a proportion who decline business on that day."i Even the ministers of religion themselves may not be found blameless in this matter. It is possible that as the physicians of the body avail themselves of their professional liberty to labour unnecessarily on the day of rest, so the physicians of the soul may take improper advantage of the maxim, that " on the Sabbath- bath cele- bration, and the Government in consequence republished all the laws upon the subject, and distributed them to all the civic boards and parishes.^ We have to add that accounts, received very lately, and which will be afterwards noticed, represent the cause of the Sabbath as making gratifying advances in Germany. But, on the other hand, there appears to be little done for the promotion of that cause in other continental Protestant states. And it was mentioned at a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Paris by M. Descombaz, in his Report on the Sabbath, that the observance of the Lord's day is diminishing in Switzerland, that harvest and vintage work is unscrupulously done, and that municipal councils, and patriotic festivals and gatherings take place. In no part of the world, perhaps, has more been successfully at- tempted of late years for the reformation of Sabbatic abuses than in the United States. Through the efforts of the Secretary of the Sabbath Union and others, an increased attention has been awakened, and in many j^laces a great change in sentiment and practice is taking place with regard to this subject. The trans- portation of the mails on the Sabbath has, on numerous routes, been discontinued ; and stage coaches, steam-boats, rail-cars and canal-boats, have in many cases ceased to run on that day. Stock- holders, directors, distinguished merchants and civilians, have ex- pressed their con\dctions that, should this be the case universally, it would greatly promote the welfare of all. The number of those who go or send to the post-office, who are disposed to labour, or engage in secular business, travelling, or amusement on the Sab- bath, is diminishing, and the number is increasing of those wdio are disposed to attend the public worship of God. Sabbath-break- ing is becoming more and more disreputable, and is viewed by in- creasing numbers as evidence of a low, reckless, and vicious mind. 1 Relig. Condit. of Christendom, pp. 467, 473. DESECRATION EXTENT. 531 The conviction is extending that it is not only morally wrong, but unprofitable and dangerous. And should all the facts with regard to this subject be known, and duly appreciated, that con- viction we believe will become universal. Labourers in many cases refuse to work on the Sabbath ; they view it as it actually is, a degradation to be thus singled out from the rest of the commu- nity and obliged to labour when others are at rest. They find it to be hurtful to themselves, and their families. It injures their health, corrupts their morals, and increases the danger of their being abandoned to infamy and ruin. Some who, in consequence of refusing to labour on the Sabbath, had been dismissed from their employments, have afterwards been sought for and employed again, and warmly commended for their attachment to principle, and for their fidelity and success in the discharge of their duties. There is a growing conviction, founded upon experience and obser- vation, that property and life are more safe under the care of those who keep the Sabbath ; and that the one class are more likely to be blessed and to be a blessing, even in this world, than the other. Though the violation of the Sabbath may, in some cases, seem to prevent loss, or to result in present gain, yet it does not end well. The observance of the day is found, on the whole, to be most profitable. As principles and facts become known, all see new evidence that " the Sabbath was made for man," and that in the keeping of it, according to the will of God, there is great reward. ^ 1 First Anmial He-port of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union, pp. 4, 5. 532 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. CHAPTER VI. CAUSES OF SABBATH DESECRATION. The human mind is naturally unwilling to stoop to authority, even when that authority may be interposed in favour of a work not repulsive to it. Many dislike to be told to do what they are in- clined to, and will on this very account do the opposite. But to be required to do Mdiat is contrary to our inclinations is doubly offen- sive, and to have to continue in such a course exasperates the feelings beyond all endurance. There is nothing in any Divine requirement that is not holy, just, and good — that is not in itself reasonable, beneficial, and pleasant. In the heart of man, how- ever, there is that which converts all into gloom, oppression, in- justice and misery. " The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Now, because the Sabbath requires total abstinence from thought and occupation relative to the things of the world, which are su- premely loved, and the concentration of the spirit on all that is spiritual, and thoroughly hated, the whole opposition of the per- son to the Divine law is stirred against the all-comprehending statute, " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." The re- sult is either such a constrained observance of it as excites the feeling. Behold what a weariness is it ! — When will the Sabbath be gone 1 or a bold renunciation of the yoke, and a joining with others in the unholy confederacy of plotting against the day itself, " Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." This is the secret source of bitterness against one of the wisest and most benign of institutions ; the principle which gives potency to all influences of an external nature, and all arguments against the consecration of an entire day to the service of Him who is re- DESECEATION CAUSES. 533 garded as an enemy. But for this state of mind, how would it be possible for any rational being to resist the evidence for the Sab- bath, presented in its own apparent wisdom, simplicity and beauty, in the plain statements of Revelation, and in the actual results of its observance in the formation of a personal excellence in thousands such as is produced by no other means, and in a social dignity, purity, and happiness by which Sabbath-observing com- munities are so distinguished above all others 1 Let us learn, however, from this cause of opposition to the Lord's day, that our chief endeavour must be to encounter it by the only means cap- able of fully meeting and dislodging it, and of securing both a genuine and abiding respect for the Divine Commandment, that Word of the Lord which transforms the dispositions of the heart, that armoury of spiritual weapons which are mighty through God for pulling down strongholds. It would be well if the opponents of the Sabbath were to con- sider the imposition which they practise upon themselves in giving heed to the calumnies listened to, or invented by them against the friends of the institution as persons of narrow, bigoted notions, and in mistaking their own prejudices and prepossessions for argument and truth. It would be well for them to ponder their proceedings, the more that able men may advance much that is ingenious and plausible in support of a bad cause, and that such ability may serve only to place a man more hopelessly be- yond the reach of that truth which is obvious to simpler and more unsophisticated minds. Let them consider, too, that many have thought like them respecting the Sabbath, but have lived to lament their opinions, or have died retracting them. No incon- sistency in professed Christians, none of the subsidiary agencies or neglects now to be mentioned as contributing to their state of mind, will free them from responsibility. Their own dislike to the Sabbath is at the foundation of all their views and feelings on the subject, and that dislike is voluntary, uncoerced, and criminal. We fear that much of the prevailing desecration of the Sabbath is owing to the apathy and evil example of its professed friends. We have no sympathy with those who take advantage of the errors of individuals to condemn and expose classes of men. But 534 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. we trust that we commit no sucli fault, when, recollecting the power of the sacred oflBce for evil or for good, we affirm that some of those holding that office have done much to promote the dese- cration of the Lord's day ; that others have done too little to arrest the evil ; and that many, than whom none will be readier to acknowledge the fact than themselves, have not done what they could to vindicate the claims and to diffuse the spirit of the day of rest. Truth requires us to say that the desecration of the Sabbath in Roman Catholic countries is attributable in a great measure to the priesthood, who having so much control over their people, withhold from them the Word of God, and both by pre- cept and example teach them that they sufficiently fulfil the demands of the Sabbath law by attending once on the service of the mass, while, instead of appealing to the legal tribunals when the evil becomes too much even for them, they could by moral means have secured at least an external decency of character on the Lord's day. But there are Protestant clergymen who are even worse than they, inasmuch as they offend amidst the clearer light and better profession of the Reformation. When such men are found significantly pointing their flocks to the discarded festivals of Rome as worthy of their admiration ; when they are seen performing the most sacred offices of religion with manifest indifference or with pompous display ; when they are not careful to declare all the counsel of G-od, the grace of the gospel as well as the claims of the law ; when they prophesy smooth things, and when they are chargeable with immoralities, worldly con- formity, or profaneness, what is to be expected but that there shall be, like priest, like people ? The misconduct of the clergy had no small influence upon the celebrated Earl of Rochester, as he him- self confessed, to make him an atheist. The increase of Sabbath desecration in Germany had its origin in times when infidelity was spread by the universities amongst the clergy, and by the clergy amongst the people. But the members of churches have their influence and responsi- bilities. Those who profess to be Protestants, hold it as a part of their creed that they have a right to bring the sentiments and practice of their spiritual guides " to the law and to the testi- mony." They are ready enough to exercise this right in matters DESECRATION CAUSES. 535 of worldly concern, and it 'svill not avail them to allege, in refer- ence to moral and religious things, that they followed the example of their jDastors. Many of these pastors, besides, have taught and done what was right, and their people are found failing to profit by their instructions, and to walk in their steps. We are entitled, therefore, to separate the members of churches from their ministers, and to view them as a distinct and independent source of influence in regard to the observance of the Sabbath. Every professed Christian who is careless in this respect contributes to the discouragement of faithful ministers, to the impairing of the power of Christianity, and to the corruption of society in a de- gree which is incalculable. Let us refer to one principal mode in which the improper conduct of such persons operates. We refer to the want of parental care and example. While many, like Abraham, command thek children and households after them to do what is right, there are others who resemble Eli, of whom it is said that when his sons made themselves vile he restrained them not. " You attribute," said the chairman of the Sabbath committee of the House of Commons, when examining Mr. H. F. Isaac, a Jew, " the observance of the Sabbath on the part of the Jew, to the force of early religious education V " I am satisfied it is so," was the reply. We may conceive a variety of ways in which heads of families professing religion, do what tends to de- feat as to them its great end. One is frequently called from home, and his house on the Lord's day is exposed to intrusion from the worldly men with whom he is connected in business. The result is, that a numerous family grow up practical pagans. Another leaves liis family very much to themselves ; and while some are constrained by early affliction to du'ect their attention to matters of chief moment, others become the disgrace of his name. A third is so much occupied with attending religious meetings, and with the theory of rehgion, that his children are in a great measure neglected, and what they learn is a sort of form of godli- ness, so that none of them gives decided indications of Christian character. A fourth is so stern and harsh in his discipline respecting Sabbath-keeping and other duties, that the eff'ect of freedom from parental control is the bounding to a worse extreme. But cases accumulate to the view beyond the possibility of being 536 THE SABBATH VINDICATED recorded in our allowed space, and impress us with the conviction that parents have much to answer for in reference to prevailing Sabbath desecration. A London City Missionary says, " I have never discovered a single case of juvenile delinquency where the child had been the subject from infancy of the double teaching by precept and example in the ways of Christ, at the hands of parents, both of whom were evidently truly converted to God. I do not strain the promise so far as to believe such is never the case ; I simply state the result of systematic inquiry and studies of human nature, pursued most extensively for years, at no small pains." ^ There are other forms, however, in which the injurious influ- ence of professed friends of the Sabbath is exerted. The conver- sation which takes place when persons are congregated about the house of God,' or when they meet with their friends, goes to pro- duce the impression that they recognise no difference of day, so far as that is concerned. There are those who take liberties with the Sabbath by visits to their acquaintance, under the delusive persuasion that they still maintain the sanctity of the day by attending church at the stated time of service. There are others who indulge themselves on that day with walking or in feasting. To these we must add a class who subject many to unnecessary labour by employing vehicles in going to church. We cannot con- ceive a better use of such conveniences than conveying the infirm and the sickly to the house of God, when this is so done as to interfere with no servant's religious rights and benefit on the Sabbath. But this condition is often violated. It should seem that " it is a common thing for persons to ride on Sundays to their places of worship,"- and that some go considerable distances for this object.^ That this is not necessary, appears from the dif- ferent conduct of " the religious persons of Islington, who are proverbial for not riding in omnibuses on Sundays."'^ A large proportion of Sabbath profanation is chargeable to the account of the higher and wealthier classes of society. Many of these classes corrupt others by their example. The disposition to throw off" the restraints of religion is ready to avail itself of some 1 Notes, etc., by R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 250. - Baylee's Statistics, p. 79. " Baylee's Statistks:, p. 7C». * Ihid. p. 80. DESECRATION CAUSES. 537 apology or encouragement. And nothing is more likely to furnish it than the conduct of our superiors in station. A writer on Sabbath desecration in Germany says, " Persons of high rank gave a very bad example, and the people followed it willingly. The officers of the government were seen very seldom at pubhc worship. During the morning you found them generally in their offices, in the afternoon on some pleasure party, and in the even- ing at the theatre."^ In the evidence on the Sabbath given be- fore a committee of the House of Commons in 1832, the influence of the examjDle of the upper classes in inducing their inferiors to mis-spend thS Lord's day is amply attested. " The opportunity of knowing, through the public press and other sources, how the higher classes of society generally, but more particularly in the metropolis, are employed on the Lord's day, has a powerful influ- ence on the minds of the lower classes, as a temptation or encouragement in their habits of Sabbath profanation."^ " When you have endeavoured to enforce the duty of observing the Sabbath upon the lower classes, do they frequently allege the example of those in a higher sphere of life in justification of their own neglect, and violation of that day V " Continually ; and, in more than one instance, the meeting of Cabinet ministers on that day."^ " I have met with instances where the lower classes have said, ' The greater ones do it ' — buying fish on Sunday — ' and why should we not do it f "4 Then how many unnecessary works and pleasures of the great and rich make it in some sort imperative on tradesmen and others to encroach on sacred time. The journeys undertaken that might have been arranged for another day, the entertainments that might be postponed, the luxury of a particular dress, or article of food, or newspaper, these things, so utterly contemptible, involve many human beings in Sabbath labour, to the loss of the weekly rest required ^by their physical powers, and of the means of spiritual good indispensable to their higher being and interests. What is the penalty of the gratification of such desires to their victims, but slavery, sin against their great Master, shortened life 1 Rclinious Condition of Christendom (1852), p. 4C6. ^ Report, Evidence of Mi- D. Rowland, p. 94. 3 Eyidence of Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Harrow, p. 177. * Evidence, p. 101. 538 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. here, and the forfeiture of the better life hereafter ? " Masters and men are wholly employed during the day, and more so on the Sunday, because many noblemen and gentlemen who are members of Parliament, have more company on Saturday and Sunday, these being the only leisure their parliamentary duties afford them, con- sequently there is more done on these days than on others."^ " Amongst the nobility and gentry there is most business done on Saturday and Sunday."^ " From the nature of your business, do you see any means of diminishing your occupation, as long as the upper classes continue to give dinners on that day [Sunday] ?" " I do not see that there is." . . . " Then, speaking as a conscien- tious man, it would be agreeable to you if the upper classes of society did fix on other days rather than Sunday for their great dinners V "I should most decidedly say so, as far as regards myself individually, and the comfort and happiness of my ser- vants ; for I consider it to be a duty that I owe them to relieve them as much as possible from their duties on Sunday ; whether they employ it in religious subjects, or in any other manner, it gives them the opportunity, if they think jiroper, to improve it ; and if they do not, it still affords them the same advantages which most other people enjoy, that is, a day of repose after a week of hard work."^ To masters and employers of workmen another large share of Sabbath desecration must be ascribed. While many tradesmen, forty-nine out of fifty in London, desire to be relieved from Sunday trading, there are many others who are influenced by the cupidity and speculation so prevalent in our time voluntarily to bind fetters on working-men in place of the holy and merciful restraints of the Sabbath law. Let us hear the following statements on this latter point : " Does the journeyman get additional wages for working on Sunday?" "None at all." "Then it is only the desire of gain on the part of the master that induces them to go on?" "That circumstance is the whole of it."* "Is there a general desire on the part of the tradesmen in Richmond to see 1 Report, Evidence of Mr. J. B., Fishmonger, p. 96. - Report, Evidence of W. D., Fishmonger, p. 104. 3 Report, Evidence of Mr. J. Chaplain, proprietor of Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, pp. 127-8. * Report, Evidence of Mr. J. C, Jr., Baker, Richmond, p. 1S9. DESECRATION CAUSES. 539 tlie Sunday better observed than it is at present ? " "I think there is with one part, but the other part are more anxious to get money." ^ In defence of this reckless spirit, which, for the sake of money, disregards the law of God and the rights of maji, it is pleaded that it is impossible to avoid it, and that in the general race and rush they must do like others if they would not be distanced in the course, or run over in the crowd. But what is in opposition to those Divine statutes which forbid and condemn the too eager pursuit of gain, the hastening to be rich, and the " adding of house to house, and laying field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the earth," admits of no apology. The spirit is not only ungodly, but selfish and unfeeling as regards the interests of those whom it employs to be the instruments of its gratification, turning them into beasts of burden or mere machines, and caring not, if they serve such a turn, what becomes of their mental improvement, their souls, their everlasting interests. Mam- mon is indeed a cruel god, who has no regard for the flesh and blood, the noble faculties and feelings, the precious souls which his votaries sacrifice in his honour. Many examples there are to be found indeed in the commercial world of men who really feel for their workmen, and provide for them the means of promoting their health, comfort, and instruction. There are our Buxtons and other kindred spirits. Where, however, human beings are persuaded that the great object of life is to be rich, how can we suppose that they will allow their dependants time and oppoi'tunity for that mental and moral culture, of the value of which to them- selves, and especially to working men, they have no just con- ception. There is one way in which employers promote the desecration of the Sabbath that has not even the plea of the smallest contri- bution to their advantage or pleasure. We refer to the pay- ment of their men at a time that exposes the latter to various temptations and injuries, and in some cases necessitates the in- fraction of the Divine law. There have been instances in which wages were actually paid on the Lord's day. It is not long since this was done in some parts of England, cases few, we trust, and 1 Report, Evidence of Mr. J. C, Jr., Baker, Richmond, p. 190. .540 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. now discontinued. It was proved in the evidence from which we have been quoting, that masters, by not paying their men till Saturday night, obliged them to make Sunday marketings, which occasioned crowds on Sabbath, subjected the workman to increased expense, and made him abstain from going to church ; and that there was no necessity for Sunday marketing. ^ There are influences from without which do much to lower the general tone of religion and morals, and to foster Sabbath dese- cration. One kind of influence affects chiefly the upper and middle ranlcs of the community, that originating in their inter- course with foreigners. It is not to be supposed that the visits of our countrymen to the Continent, so multiplied of late by the facilities of comm^unication, can have been without considerable injury to our national customs and manners. Familiarity with a secular Sabbath tends to abate a sense of the evil. A partial at- tendance in the house of God, and occasional absences, cease to be considered as anything wrong. And the frivolity and demoraliz- ing amusements of other lands fascinate the mind and corrupt the heart. Another species of influence has had its sphere of action among the remaining class of society. The immigration of so many natives of the sister island has been felt in an immense addition to the poor-rates, in defeating attempts to repress crime and dis- ease, and in bringing down our comparatively instructed and moral population to their own level, and in some cases below it, as the impetus in consequence of the greater height fallen from must be greater. All this must be unfavourable to a regard for sacred institutions. But as the persons imported bring with them a religion which recognises ouly a fraction of a Sabbath, their prac- tices on that day come to be regarded with decreasing aversion and fear, and in course of time to be imitated. The defective, erroneous, and worthless opinions propagated through the press form the only other cause of tlie evil in ques- tion which we have to name. Among these opinions are deficient and incorrect views with regard to the institution itself. We pre- sent a sjDecimen or two. The first concerns the Continent. " You know," observes the Rev. T. Plitt of Bonn, " that an opinion pre- 1 Report, Evidence, pp. 29, 30. DESECRATION CAUSES. 541 vails in our country that there is no real connexion between the Christian Sunday and the command of God, ' Eemember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy ;' but that the Sunday celebration is a human institution which must be left to Christian liberty, because it is good, and because it is enjoined by the Church. This view, in different gradations, you find too general in Germany ; and I am quite convinced you agree with me in believing that a truly Christian Sabbath observance is only possible if we hold that the law given to Adam, and repeated on Mount Sinai, ' Re- member the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,' has an eternal obliga- tion."^ We give another specimen, one relating to our own country : " The thought of writing at all was suggested to me by a few words only, which I heard interchanged in the street of a country town, but which were sufficient to convince me that Dr. Whately's pamphlet, Tlioughts or the Sabbath, was doing extreme mischief ; and that through it an opinion was gaining ground that the Episcopacy of our Church was opposed to the principle of keeping holy the Sabbath-day. Under such circumstances, I was induced to write these pages, to vindicate the Divine institu- tion of the Christian Sabbath."- We find in the pamphlet itself, on which Mr. Barter animadverts, evidence that its views are not fitted to produce the most elevated morality. In an address to the inhabitants of Dublin and its \acinity, the Archbishop says, '■' If, for instance, after devoutly attending Divine worship with your family, you just turn into a shop to buy some trifling article, you indeed may not feel that you are doing anything that inter- feres with your own devout observance of the day ; but you should remember that the expectation of some such chance-customers may induce the tradesman to remain all day in his shop, occupied in his ordinary worldly affairs, and deprived of his best, and per- haps only opportunity, of attending to the concerns of his soul."^ From a sentence in the Thoughts on the Sahhath, to which the Address is appended, we learn the following fact relative to per- sons known to the writer as entertaining his opinions on the ques- tion : "I have formerly hinted my suspicions, in an essay already before the public [On the Love of Truth], that some persons who 1 Religions Condition of Christendom, pp. 479, 480. 2 Barter's Answer to Whately, p. 35. 2 pp 43^ 44 542 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. do not really believe the Mosaic law relative to the Sabbath to be binding on Christians, yet think it right to encourage or tacitly connive at that belief from views of expediency, for fear of un- settling the minds of the common people. Indeed, I know, as a fact, respecting several persons, what is probably the case with many others, that they fully coincide with my views on the pre- sent question, though they judge it not advisable, at present at least, to come forward and avow their opinion."^ The influence of the unguarded expressions of Luther and others on the subject before us was very extensively, and has been also permanently, injurious to the interests of religion and morality. We have only to look to the Protestant countries of the Continent for the proof " Their view about the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment as a Jewish ordinance," observes Fairbairn, " told most unfavourably upon the interests of religion on the Continent. There can be little doubt that this was the evil root from which chiefly sprung so soon afterwards such a mass of Sabbath desecra- tion, and which has rendered it so diflicult ever since to restore the day of God to its proper place in the feelings and observances of the people. . . . The evil, once begun, proceeded rapidly from bad to worse, till it scarcely left in many places so much as the form of religion. No doubt many other causes were at work in bringing about so disastrous a result, but much was certainly owing to the error under consideration. And it reads a solemn and impressive warning to both ministers and people, not only to resist to the utmost all encroachments upon the sanctity of the Lord's day, but also to beware of weakening any of the founda- tions on which the obligation to keep that day is made to rest ; and here, as well as in other things, to seek, with Leighton, that they ' may be saved from the errors of wise men, yea, and of good men.' " 2 There is another class of opinions which, without referring to our institution at all, operate against it, by fostering the supposi- tion that religion is not the principal concern of man. The mere absence of religion from a publication which is constantly read, and the treatment of every topic as if there were nothing of im- portance beyond the present scene, have a most secularizing effect ' Thoughts on the Sabbath, p. 1. Tupologf/, vol. il pp. 475, 476. DESECRATION CAUSES. 543 on the public mind. Robert Hall informs us that the evil effect of a perusal of Miss Edge worth's writings, which are marked by " a universal and studied omission of religion," was experienced by him for weeks.^ We have been informed by a working-man that he was obliged from the same cause to discontinue the reading of a popular miscellany which prides itself on its harmlessness and moral purity. If works of this cast tend to make their readers mere " men of the world who have their portion in this life," such a publication as Fundi w^ould deprive them of any little dignity which the other v/riters had left to their time-bounded ex- istence. Even where there may be nothing profane or licentious in the literature of the day, its entirely worldly or frivolous cha- racter imparts its own impress to the mind of the reader. And how much more prejudicial the influence of those number- less works which more avowedly or covertly seek to sap the foun- dations of all religion and morals ! Of this class of publications it was stated, in 1847, that there was an annual issue of not less than 28,000,000. This would give an average w^eekly number of above 500,000, and supposing five readers to each, there must have been in that year upwards of tw^o and a half millions of people under the perpetual operation of the fatal leaven. Let us conclude this part of our subject with the impressive words of Mr. Warren : " I can most conscientiously express my belief, that for a long time no periodical of note has been established in this country which has not disclosed the desire of its conductors to fit it for the purpose of innocent recreation and information to readers of both sexes, and of all ages and classes. It is a fact, however, stated with concern and reluctance, that there is a poisonous growth of libertine litera- ture— if the last word be not indeed libelled by such a use of it — designed for the lowest classes of society ; supplied, moreover, to an extent scarcely equal to the demand for it, and which exists to an extent unfortunately little suspected. I know not how this dreadful evil is to be encountered, except by affording every possible encouragement, from every quarter, to the dissemination, in the cheapest practicable form, of wholesome and engaging literature. If poison be cheap, let its antidote be cheaper. "- 1 Life, p. 174. 2 Intellectual and Moral Development of the Present Age. By Samuel Warren, etc. p. 7. 544 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. CHAPTEE VII. REMEDIES OF SABBATH DESECRATION. We have nothing new to propose on this part of our subject. We are firmly convinced that the grand panacea for the ills of the world has been long ago discovered and prescribed, and that what is wanting is only its more general and earnest application. Be- sides this chief remedy, there are others important in their place, but even on these little room has been left for originality. As truth, however, needs to be often presented, we offer no apology for the following suggestions. The preaching of the Word by the appointed servants of Christ is perhaps next to prayer the most important remedy for a dese- crated Sabbath. This was the great instrument by which Christi- anity was established in the world. It was the chief means of the Reformation. It has done more than any other human agency for the conversion of the heathen in our own time. It is the glory of our land. It would enlighten and bless all nations were it wielded as extensively as there are human beings. It would still more elevate Christian countries were it more fully and earnestly em- ployed. And we have only to examine the doctrines and spirit of the apostle Paul to know what the true and effectual preaching of the gospel is. His great subject was a crucified Saviour, and he preached well and successfully because he believed, felt, prayed. Let a philosopher who knew human nature well, and had observed much, be heard on the kind of preaching that does good. His re- mark has been quoted already, but deserves repetition. " Those," he says, " who preach faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good works, or the mere regulation of outward acts." It is not difficult to trace the connexion between right preaching and a sanctified Sabbath. Let a man hear and believe the Word of God, DESECRATION REMEDIES. 545 and he immediately feels the value and obligation of the Lord's day, as of every Christian ordinance. If a person live under a faithful ministry he learns more and more of the value and obliga- tion of that institution. To what mainly does Great Britain owe a Sabbath to such an extent honoured by her people, and blessing them in return with temporal and spiritual good, but to the teach- ings of an evangelical ministry 1 Let it be the endeavour of all who wish well to their country to have such an instrumentality extended to every part of the land. It is a melancholy fact, as we have already seen, that there are multitudes who will not at- tend on Divine ordinances in the usual places of worship. In these circumstances let us remember the wise words of Dr. Chalmers, " The gospel is a message, not a thing for which the people will come to them, but a thing with which they must go to the people." Another mode of diffusing sacred knowledge, and an important pioneer and auxiliary to the other, is realized in the labours of missionaries. And they would, we conceive, still more efficiently promote their object by being trained and sent forth as foreign agents are. It is delightful to think of what has been accom- plished by those excellent men who are employed in the London City mission, in inducing Sabbath observance and its associated practices. In the Eeports of the Society it is mentioned that in the course of one year they prevailed on 1914 adults regularly to attend public worship ; and, in the progress of another, persuaded 2736 to follow their example. They have, in thousands of in- stances, influenced persons to give up their secular work, and families to keep their shops shut on the Lord's day. These are only specimens of results of the same nature which annually attend their exertions. And yet a much larger field might be occupied if there were only more abundant pecuniary means. Is it not painful in the extreme to reflect that multitudes, by tramp- ling on the laws of God in our large cities, are continually pro- voking His displeasure, spreading moral and physical disease, burdening society, and destroying themselves, when there are so many able to provide the means of healing, in the fountain, these waters of bitterness ? The less official style of personal appeal and remonstrance by 2 M 546 THE SABBATH YITa)ICATED. individuals of any class of society is an important aid in the pro- motion of this cause. Many instances of the efficacy of this means might be adduced. AVe cite the following. The late ex- cellent Bishop Porteus, when so infirm as to require to be carried, waited on the Prince of Wales at Carlton House, and by his faithful representations procured the alteration, to another day of the week, of a meeting which was held by the Prince and some military friends regulariy on the Sabbath. It is recorded ©f the Rev. Henry Venn, the author of the Complete Buty of Man, that by employing persons to attempt, through persuasion, the re- pression of the open violation of the Sabbath, he accomplished a great reformation in Huddersfield.^ Even by children and ser- vants may the Sabbath-breaker be reclaimed. We have read of the former addressing salutary and successful instruction and reproof to their seniors of that character. And the following is an in- stance of the wise and faithful rebuke of a servant who, in influ- encing the object of it to amend his ways, has been through him a blessing to many. It is mentioned in the Life of Fletcher of Madeley, that, when a young man about twenty-three, and em- ployed one Sabbath in writing some music, a servant coming into his room looked at him with serious concern, and said, " Sir, I am sorry to see you so employed on the Lord's day." At first his pride and resentment were moved at being reproved by a servant ; but on reflection he felt that the reproof was just, immediately put away his music, and from that time became a strict observer of the Lord's day,^ The press is confessedly an organ of great power in the cause of either truth or error, and one therefore of which the friends of religion and of the Sabbath ought largely to avail themselves. And certainly as its earliest was, so its principal application ought to be, in the multiplication and circulation of the most powerful of all writings, the sacred Scriptures. Human writings are imperfect. There is none of them in which there is not some defect or mistake. Enemies fasten on these things. But if fault be foimd with Scripture, it is without cause. " We question if any person of any class or school ever read the Scriptures regu- larly and thoroughly without being or becoming not only religious 1 Life, rp. 50. 51. 2 Life, 18mo, p. 2,3. DESECRATION REMEDIES. 547 but sensible and consistent."^ It was the reading of a Bible which originated the Reformation. And in our own days its truths have diffused knowledge, piety, happiness, and civilisation among men of every character, colour, and clime. Wherever they have penetrated, human beings have reverently acknowledged the claims of their Creator on their spirits and bodies, their substance and time. The truth as it is in Jesus is able to overthrow all error and evil, and to transform the character of mankind into the like- ness of the Divine nature. It has a commission from its Author to accomplish this revolution over the whole world, and the com- mission is accompanied with His promise of entire success. What, then, is required to its further victories over sin in every form, is to present to the minds of men the Word of the Lord, with entire confidence in its mightiness through God to the pull- ing down of strongholds. And that it is still " quick and powerful " let the following facts show : — Dr. Carey mentions that two of the most active and useful native preachers, and several other brethren, had been the fruits of a New Testament left at a shop, and states also that early in 1813 some Brahmins and persons of caste, not many miles from Serampore, obtained the knowledge of the truth, and met for Christian worship on the Lord's day before they had any intercourse with the missionaries, simply by reading the Scriptures. These were baptized, and re- ported that hundreds of their neighbours were convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, and were kept back from profess- ing it only by the fear of losing caste, and its consequences. Mr. Dudley, in his Analysis of the System of the Bible Society, remarks, that " a greater regard for the Sabbath and more general and regular attendance on Divine worship was another and early result of the Society's labours, and an evidence that they were not in vain." ^ But the circulation of the Scriptures does not supersede the employment of the other publications for advancing the cause of truth and righteousness, provided they are agreeable to that supreme standard, and provided especially they set forth and en- force its doctrines and laws. Every department of knowledge and every form of publication may be rendered tributary to the de- 1 Editorial Article in the Times, August 20, 1847. 2 pp 94^ 95. 548 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. signs of Revelation, and to the confirmation and defence of its great discoveries and lessons. The Reformation was eminently forwarded by the writings of Luther. What a blessing to the world have been the works of Baxter, Owen, Bunyan, Hervey, Leighton, and Chalmers ! How potent an instrumentality in our own day has been the publication of tracts ! Nor must the lead- ing truths of Christianity, prominent though the exhibition of them ought to be made, be the exclusive subjects of such works. It may be necessary to single out such a topic as that of the Sabbath for frequent admonition or occasionally for full illustra- tion. The lucubrations of Heylyn rendered imperative the elabo- rate treatises of Owen and Baxter. The speculations of Paley and Whately have demanded the strictures of D wight, Holden, and Wardlaw. Prevalent error in opinion, and sin in practice, have called forth the various essays by ministers and working men with which the name of Henderson stands so honourably associated. And have these labours been in vain 1 It is stated that the works of Greenham and Twisse contributed greatly to promote the observance of the Sabbath in their times. The treatises, on the institution, of the seventeenth century, constitute to this day an armoury of weapons to defeat the continually re- appearing, though frequently demolished, arguments of its ene- mies. How much in recent times have the works of Horsley, Edwards, and many others, corroborated the influence of the pul- pit, and reassured the courage of the members of their respective communions, and of the friends of the Sabbath generally, as well as rolled back the tide of error and evil ! And most encouraging, too, has been the success of smaller works. The movement in Germany, already referred to, was essentially aided by the issuing of addresses, in thousands of copies, on Sabbath celebration, and by the circulation of the Pearl of Days, and other prize essays. The sowing broad-cast of many treatises and tracts over England and Scotland, within these few years, has resulted in a rich harvest. But perhaps the most effective use of the press has been made by the Sabbath Union of America, which, with the energy characteristic of the nation, has not only sent forth its secretary over the whole country to promote the observance of the Sabbath, by addressing meetings, and by interviews with influential indi- DESECRATION REMEDIES. 549 viduals, but scattered in great profusion its Reports and Permanent Documents, in which the whole question is dealt Avith scripturally, and brought home by striking facts to men's business and bosoms. One of the most important agencies for promoting reverence for the Sabbath and religion in general, and thus for advancing all the great interests of society, is lodged in the hands of parents. To them it belongs to train up the young in their earliest and most susceptible days, by instruction, example, and government, in the knowledge and practice of all excellence. And not the least effec- tual of the means which they ought to employ is the exercise of the authority with which they have been intrusted by the Supreme Ruler. The language of God to Abraham is their warrant for making use of this power : " I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."^ Their duty is taught them by a case, than which nothing in conduct and results can be conceived more unlike the procedure of the father of the faithful, and its consequences — the case of Eli, who when his sons made themselves vile restrained them not. Parental neglect is one of the chief occasions of the ignorance, immorality, and irre- ligion of a country. And we may add that there is nothing in which parents are so apt to fail, as in the exercise of their autho- rity over their offspring. Although all other means were employed, if they are on the one hand too indulgent, or on the other too severe, what would avail those means ? The young will too fre- quently in such a case despise the inconsistent teaching and example, or be driven from a path which they are not allowed in their homes to find a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. Equally necessary is the practice of two injunctions if a population is to be trained to fear God and keep His commandments : " Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest ; yea, he shall give delight un- to thy soul."^ " Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."^ The example of consistent character and deportment is a means of good which all Christians may employ, and which every one is 1 Gen. xviii. 19. 2 Pror. xxix. 17. 3 Eph. vi. 4. 550 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. capable of appreciating as well as most prepared to feel and re^ spect. The law of Christ applies to this, as to all other depart- ments of duty : " Let your light so shine before men, that they also may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The exemplary conduct of the humblest person has the most powerful influence over a family, and over all who have occa- sion to observe it. But the power of such example is the greater that the individual occupies a high standing in the church or in society — such, for instance, as the cases of a Sir M. Hale, a Howard, a Wilberforce, and a K. Hall, all of whom were distinguished by their sacred regard to the Lord's day. No apparent improvement may in some instances be the result in those who witness the ex- ample, but benefit is frequently the obvious, and still more fre- quently the actual effect. No good action is lost. It is ever beneficial to him who performs it. It is approved by the Judge of all. When seen, it is a witness for Him. And the influence of the character and the deeds of the good operates in ways and to an extent, which, whether known or not to them, are incalcul- able in their beneficent amount. Such men are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Of many instances in which persons under the authority of others have been ready to sacrifice their means of support for the sake of a good conscience, we particularize that of an overseer in a factory at Manchester, related by the Bishop of Chester at a public meeting. Being told by one of the proprietors on a Saturday that his attendance would be necessary next day, when certain repairs in the machinery were to be made, he replied that he regretted much to disobey his employer, but he could not attend at work on the Sunday. " Then," said the proprietor, "you will come on that day, or you will not come again at all." In the course of the Monday following, his employer sent for him, and asked why it was that he had not returned : the man said that after what had been told him on the Saturday, he did not consider himself at liberty to return. " Oh !" said his employer, " perhaps I was a little hasty in what I said : attend in your place as usual." See the value of a man of principle ! It was felt by one who perhaps disregarded the religious feeling on which the principle was founded, but who still set a just value on the individual who conscienti- DESECRATION REMEDIES. 551 ously adhered to it.^ Instances of many others in various situa- tions in life, who have acted with equal firmness in similar circum- stances, must be known to our readers. The person who so acts performs a valuable service to the cause of the Sabbath. Let others, putting their trust in the Lord of the institution, the Pro- prietor of the earth and its fulness, go and do likewise. Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches, states that the example of the missionaries in Tahiti led to the strict and general observance of the Lord's day by the nation at large, and that the prevailing attention to the public worship of God, and the exemplary Chris- tian deportment of many of the people, have proved not only de- lightful, but beneficial to their visitors j there being probably many instances of good besides, which the revelations of the last day alone will disclose. It would be well that a similar example were set by the multitude of our countrymen who visit foreign lands for other purposes than those of missionary enterprise. How de- sirable that they should bear with them the thought, " Thou God seest me," and that, constrained by His love, they should spend His day according to the commandment, and as every Christian delights to do. The following cases might supply a directory and stimulus : " This day being Sunday," wTites a Christian traveller, " was devoted to repose. The want of religious ordinances is the greatest of all privations. May I henceforth duly estimate the privileges of my native land." ^ " We remained all day (Sunday) in Wady Sudr. We had determined before setting off from Cairo, always to rest on the Christian Sabbath, if possible ; and during all our journeys in the Holy Land, we were never compelled to break over this rule but once. Strange as it may at first seem, these Sabbaths in the desert had a peculiar charm, and left upon the mind an impression which never can be forgotten."^ Example may operate where its living form was not seen, and far beyond the sphere in which it shone. A medical gentleman acknowledged that it was his reading that Mr. Hey of Leeds rarely missed attending the morning and afternoon service of the church, which led him to arrange his time better, and follow the same plan. This occurred when he was a young man, and he never 1 Missimary Register for 1836, p. 313. 2 Remains of the late A. L. Ross, p. 379. 3 Robinson's Palestine, i. p. 9-1. 552 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. had altered the practice,^ A correspondent of the Record news- paper stated, some years ago, that the debate in the House of Com- mons on the Lord's-day Bill, and the serious manner in which it was conducted, had been noticed in more than one of the leading newspapers at Paris, and that one of them directs the particular attention of its readers to this part of the British character as worthy of imitation. " Thus," the writer justly remarks, " Sir Andrew Agnew and his associates in Parliament are in reality act- ing on all Europe, though apparently only on England and the sister kingdoms." When a duty is performed in circumstances of strong tempta- tion to an opposite course, the example has increased claims to our consideration and respect. It required no small measure of principle in AVilberforce, when, a Minister of State having called on him on some public business on a Sunday, he at once excused himself, saying he would wait upon his Lordship at any hour he might fix the next day, but he was then going to church ; this, too, after he had already attended the morning service. ^ Still stronger was the temptation of a command, addressed by a late King to an excellent person still living, to dine with his Majesty on a Sabbath-day, and the polite declining of the intended honour, received without offence, did credit to both the subject and his Prince.^ But to act such a part towards one from whom something- worse than displeasure may be apprehended, is to encounter a greater temptation still, and to evince a higher degree of courage. There were those who boldly refused to read the Booh of Sports from their pulpits in the times of James i. and Charles i., though liable thereby to suspension. Dr. Twisse was one of these faithful men. He even warned his people against Sabbath profanation. It was to the credit of James that he gave secret orders not to molest the Doctor. When Charles renewed the edict, he preached and published on the subject, " which jDroduced a powerful im- pression in the public mind in favour of the Sabbath." There is a special obligation lying on persons of high standing in society to exemplify the principles of our holy religion, since the more elevated the station the more conspicuous and regarded 1 W. Brown, Esq., late President of the Royal College of Surgeons. 2 Venu's Funeral Sermon. 3 x/fe of Lady Cokiuhoun, 156-159. DESECRATION EEMEDIES. 553 is tlie individual. And it is a peculiar pleasure to refer to in- stances of the union of piety and rank in such men as were Lord Harrington, Lord Dartmouth, and Admiral Gambler. Nor is it impossible for those in the very highest grade of earthly distinc- tion, amidst all the pleasures, temptations, and cares of a throne, to be patterns of Sabbath observance. It was a king who de- lighted to go with the multitude that kept holyday ; who was glad when it was said. Let us go up to the house of the Lord ; who would have preferred being a door-keeper in the house of his God, to dwelling in the tents of wickedness ; and who esteemed a day in the courts of the Lord better than a thousand anywhere else. Kings and emperors have followed his example. King George iii. evinced, in various ways, his veneration for the law of the Sabbath. " To every jjious subject it must be a source of lively satisfaction to know that in the pavilion itself originated measures which have materially tended to promote the better observance of the Sabbath in Brighton. It is said that there were certain arrangements in the royal household which unde- signedly entailed a large amount of Sunday labour ; but when the facts were represented to Queen Adelaide, she immediately com- manded that the orders in question should be given on Monday instead of Saturday as heretofore. And this act of Christian consideration has been extensively copied, to the great relief of many a laundress, who formerly could not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In unison with this tribute to the Divine command, was the injunction of our present Queen, forbidding the exhibition, on the Lord's day, of the State apartments at Windsor Castle ; an act which, along with Her Majesty's patron- age of the Sabbath observance movement among the working classes, has given a much-loved sovereign an additional claim to the gratitude and attachment of a Christian people."^ " Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it : except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Whence but from Divine patronage has a day of sacred rest, so opposed to the avarice, love of pleasure, and irre- ligion of the world, which give birth to so many opinions and practices tending to obliterate its name from the calendar, main- 1 Life of Lady Colquhoxtn, pp. 159, ICO. 554 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. tained, notwithstanding, its ground, and been not only valued hy- men of tlie world, but venerated, loved, and observed by Chris- tians 1 And on what other power than that of its Author can we justly depend for the preservation and universal prevalence of the institution, when the human mind is naturally as much as ever liable to error, and prone to evil, in regard to this as well as all the doctrines and laws of a kingdom which is not of this world 1 All hearts and events are in the hands of the Almighty. His own institutions are under His special care, and He can easily secure for them favour and honour. To Him, therefore, ought we to come ; in Him repose our confidence, for guidance, help, and success in every plan that we adopt, and in every exertion that we put forth on behalf of the day which He has consecrated for Him- self, and blessed for man. It promises w^ell for our cause when the paramount importance of this remedy is practically recognised. In the Stuttgard Con- ference of 1850, at which about two thousand Christians of all the countries of Germany were assembled, an address was agreed to, in which, after various useful suggestions, it is stated, " But, above all, ever}'' one should pray often and ardently to the Lord our God, that the Sabbath celebration may be restored amongst His people, and that all Governments and Chambers of Deputies may understand how pernicious it is for the people if this duty is more and more disregarded, by the example of persons high in station, by working in the Government offices, by military reviews, by meetings of the public, and of societies, diuing the hours of Divine worship, by noisy or immoral public feasts, and by a lax legislature ;" and at which, in addition, it was, on the motion of the Rev. S. C. Kapflf, resolved " That the third Sabbath of every month should be a day for common prayer with all the evangeli- cal Christians of Germany, especially on behalf of Home Missions and Sabbath observance." " We know," adds the relator, " that this resolution did not remain without consequences — that new prayer-meetings were established ; and, we trust, if the number of Christians increase who pray for Sabbath celebration, that the Lord will also send us an abundant answer, in a better observance of His holy day."^ That answer has been sent. For of the year 1 Religious Condition of Christendom, pp. 471, 477, 478. DESECRATION REMEDIES. 555 1855 we have to present the following gratifying statements : — " In Prussia, Wiirtemberg, Baden, Sabbath observance has un- doubtedly improved in the course of the last years. Not only stricter laws of former times have been enjoined, but what is of greater importance, public opinion, as also the manners and customs of the people have been ameliorated." This was written in July of that year. The writer, referring again to the subject in the following month, observes, "Though much remains to be done for the better observance of the Sabbath in Germany, yet, as I remarked in my last letter, in many, if not in most, countries an improvement is going on."^ The same spirit has actuated Christians in this land, and has undoubtedly been the means of carrying our ark over many a raging billow, and deepened the interest of our people in its future safety. Members of Parliament, while pleading its cause with man, did not forget to present their suit at a higher tribunal. When the friends of the Sabbath were employing on its behalf the eloquence of the orator and the power of the press, they neglected not to imite their petitions at the throne of grace. In circum- stances the most inauspicious to such a spirit has it been evoked and prevailed. We give an interesting example. For three years the men on the Mersey and Irwell had petitioned their employers to be emancipated from Sabbath slavery, and their petitions had no effect. At length some of them said, " We have tried men without effect ; let us appeal to God." For six weeks before the next annual meeting of their masters, they humbly besought God to put it into their hearts to comply with their request ; they did that which, whether it proceed from the cottage or the palace, from the prince or the peasant, is sure to produce a favourable result — they offered prayer in faith. The result was that, after some demur on the part of one or two individuals, the masters at length unanimously resolved to comply with their request. The sailing of thirty-nine boats on the canal was stopped on Sabbath. These things are well. But it is not an outwardly- guarded and respected Sabbath, however important and desirable this is, that will satisfy the Divine claims or human necessities. The institu- tion must be loved and venerated as the appointment of Heaven, J Navs of the Churches, toI. ii. pp. 186, 205. 556 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. and kept in the sanctuary of the heart. How can this be attained, however, without the saving knowledge and faith of the gospel, produced by the agency of the Spirit of God, or how can the be- stowal of this agency be secured but by prayer ? " Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." " Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." " Arise, 0 God, plead thine own cause, remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily." These appear to be the chief means for counteracting the great and ruinous evil of a neglected and desecrated Sabbath, and for promoting its sacred observance and benevolent designs. In aid of such means all Christians ought to exert themselves in diffusing intelligence on the subject, and to supplicate the blessing of the Great Disposer, that He may turn all hearts to favour His own institution, to reverence its authority, and to receive its spiritual, and thus its temporal good. APPEAL. 557 CHAPTER YIIL CONCLUDING APPEAL. We have yet to present a few considerations which oiiglit to weigh with us to the increase of respect and gratitude for the Lord's day, and which may serve to recommend its claims to the earnest attention of such as may not have duly considered them. And without recurring to what has ah'eady been advanced, we con- fine ourselves to three grounds of appeal, — the testimony and ex- ample of those who are entitled to our regard and reverence — the connexion which the institution has with the wellbeing of all classes of human beings — and its relation to a future state. 1. In proceeding to urge our first consideration, we are encoun- tered by the suggestion that certain great names are arrayed against us, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Milton, and others. In anotUer part of this volume we have endeavoured to dispose of this objection as regards the Eeformers, and we return to them only to supplement in a note our somewhat hasty notice of a charge brought against Knox.^ As to Milton, we may say, " And thou, too, Brutus !" True it is, however, that even after the Puritan training which he had 1 It is true, as alleged, that the Duke of Chatellerault supped with the Reformer, hut we leave it to our readers to judge from the following words whether there was anything in the matter inconsistent with the most sacred respect for the institution : " Upon Sondaye at night, the Duke supped with Mr. Knox, wher the Duke desired that I shold be. Thre special! pointes he hathe promised to perform to Mr. Knox before me : the one is never to goe for any respecte from that he hath promised to be, a professor of Christ's worde, and setter forthe of the same to his power : the nexte, alwayes to shewe hymself an obedyent subjecte to his j-overeigne, as far as in duetie and in conscience he is bounde : the thyrde, never to alter from that promes he hathe made for the mayntenance of peace and amytie betwene both the realmes. I had of hym besides thys, manie good words myselfe touchinge thys latter poynte." —Letter from Randolph (English Ambassador) to Cecil, in Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times, vol. i. pp. 114, 115. 558 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. received from his learned and idolized tutor, and after uttering as with " the tongues of angels" the praises of Him who "From work Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day, As resting on that day from all His work" — Milton did indeed, by his latterly abandoning public worship, and by a posthumous attack on the authority of the Christian Sabbath, lend his great name to opinions subversive of two kin- dred institutions, to which in his youth and manhood he owed the direction and impulse that issued in his noble prose writings, and in his yet nobler poetry. " In the distribution of his hours," says Dr. Johnson, " there was no hour of prayer, either solitary or with his household ; omitting public prayers, he omitted all."^ To Milton we might add another remarkable man, Selden, who has written more learnedly than satisfactorily respecting the Sabbath.^ And yet this prodigy of lore was a member of the AVestminster Assembly, and did not, so far as appears, intimate at any of its meetings, dissent from its doctrine on our subject. The following words, moreover, if they show that his views of the Sabbath, and of adherence to a creed, were not of the most stringent order, recog- nise substantially the moral nature of the institution : " Why should I think all the Fourth Commandment belongs to me, when all the Fifth does not ? What land will the Lord give me for hon- ouring my father ? It was spoken to the Jews with reference to the land of Canaan ; but the meaning is, if I honour my parents, God will also bless me. We read the commandments in the Church Service, as we do David's Psalms ; not that aU these concern us, but a great deal of them does."' While bearing in mind that no human being is infallible, or to be held entitled to prescribe a creed to his fellow-creatures, and that the errors of the greatest, wisest, and best of mankind tend to recall us from undue confidence in them, to entire trust only in the Infinite, we yet confess that much importance may justly be attached to the opinions of the learned, and particularly of those who combine goodness with intelligence. We believe that we ought to despise no man ; that it is our duty to try the spirits, 1 In his Life of Milton. - In Dc Jure Naturali et Gentium. 8 Table Talk, (1819) p. 169. APPEAL. 559 and prove all things ; that it becomes us to consider well before we dissent from views which have been entertained by per- sons of the greatest mental and moral excellence, and, especially, on which the Catholic Church has uttered all but a unanimous voice. Before, then, we agree to follow Milton, let us hear what other oracles have uttered, and then bring all to the oracles that are sacred and Divine. In questions that concern our physical frame, we naturally apply for information, and appeal for judgment, to persons who have made the human body their study, or by reason of their occupa- tions in life have had better means than others of knowing the effects of labour and rest. Dr. Carpenter, who stands at the head of physiologists, has said, " My own experience is very strong as to the importance of the complete rest and change of thought once in the week ;" and Dr. Farre's well-known testimony to the neces- sity of the weekly Sabbath as respects health, has been corrobora- ted by many physicians of this country and America, without having, so far as we have observed, been contradicted by any. The sighs and groans of animal nature in man and beast, where- ever oppressed by unbroken labour, proclaim the indispensable need of a Sabbath. Another valuable class of witnesses on this subject are our hard students, our philosophers, who are well acquainted with the laws of mind or matter ; our philologists, who are versed in languages and criticism ; and our men of historical research, who, in the successes and failures of the past, see rules and beacons for the present and future. Let the laborious Principal Forbes, Isaac Taylor, and Henry Rogers, express the value of the Sabbath to students. Boyle, Dr. Wallis, John Locke, and Sir David Brew- ster, shall guarantee the philosophy of the institution. Arch- bishop Usher, Drs. Owen and Kennicott, Sir William Jones, Dr. Jamieson, Dr. Pye Smith, and Professor Lee, have proved by their Sabbatic opinions — most of them by their researches on the subject also — that profound erudition has accepted and justified the commonly-received doctrine of the weekly rest ; while Principal Lee and Macaulay, thoroughly versant in the annals of our country, have shed some vivid rays on our national obligations to the in- stitution. 560 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. Magistrates, statesmen, judges, divines, and moralists ought to be competent to say how far a Sabbath is valuable to the moral or the economical interests of a State. Cromwell and Washing- ton knew well what was necessary to the defence and prosperity of a country, and the Sabbath was in their view essential to a virtuous and flourishing people. No judge has excelled Sir Matthew Hale, or lawyer, Blackstone, and they pleaded earnestly for a sanctified Sabbath. Lord Karnes was both a judge and a philosopher, and his words were, " Sunday is a day of account, and a candid account every seventh day is the best preparation for the great day of account." No moral writer has surpassed Addison for simplicity and elegance, Johnson for power and vigour, and Foster for originality and depth, and they appreciated and commended the weekly rest. The most classical and beauti- ful writer of the English language, and one of the most impressive of pulpit orators, Eobert Hall, was a conscientious observer of the (lay of rest. The clear-headed, logical, and persuasive Wardlaw defended a careful attention to the duties of the day. Henry, "the prince of commentators," and Bunyan, the author of the finest allegory in any language, pleaded for and practised the sanctification of the first day of the week. And the institution has been venerated by Howe, Bishop Hopkins, Lightfoot, Burnet, Stilliugfleet, TiUotson, Doddridge, Dean Prideaux, Dr. Samuel Clarke, Dr. Thomas Scott, Dr. Dwight, Dr. M'Rie, Dr. Paxton, Dr. Dick, Dr. John Brown, and many others of the greatest name in theological literature. Men of rank form a peculiar class, among whom temptations to vice are many and great, and any voice that proceeds from such a quarter calling for a weekly restraint on their own pleasures, and a general pause of labour to servants and working men, is entitled to respect. Such persons have been a Lord Harrington, a Lord Dartmouth, who could " wear a coronet and pray," and Lord Gambler ; and such are some of our nobility in present times. Nor have there been wanting instances of crowned heads, like our late King George iii. and the Protector, who have not been ashamed to " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." It is not unimportant to have the testimony of persons of superior talents and sagacity adduced in favour of a cause of APPEAL. 561 wliich they are not partisans or plighted supporters. Let those who would sneeringly impugn the sacred observance of the Lord's day, ponder the words of Sir Walter Scott, who was placed in early life under a religious training as strict as any Covenanter or Puritan, and who, though no Sabbatarian, said, " Give to the world one half of Sunday, and you will find that religion has no stronghold of the other." How far another mind, worthy of a station near the greatest, was indebted to the lessons and disci- pline of a Sabbath, we are not aware. Dr. Sprague informs us that the Practical View had, according to the statement of Mr. Wilberforce, the author, the cordial approbation of Burke, who must have uttered his opinion in the year that he died. We know that the great statesman and orator sought his chief solace in the bosom of his family. We might presume also, from his language in condemning the sittings of the National Assembly of France on the Lord's day, that he had experienced its rest to be a benefit to his ardent and active spirit, which, fully know- ing the injury of great tension of thought, could therefore prize the value of a stated interval of repose and relief to its overtasked powers. But we have no evidence that he had such views of the institution as Wilberforce — there is reason rather to believe that he had not ; and yet in the language referred to, part of which has been employed by us as a motto, he gave the following strik- ing testimony to the necessity of the day of rest : " They who always labour can have no true judgment. You never give your- selves 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 diligentiam.'"^ Dr. Adam Smith was still more exempt, we suspect, from Sabbatic prepossessions than either Sir Walter Scott or Mr. Burke, and yet we find him attesting the importance of religious institutions to the welfare of society in his Wealth of Nations, and in words addressed to Sir John Sinclair, which deserve to be again pre- sented : <' The Sabbath," he said, " as a political institution, is of 1 Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. 2 N 562 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine autho- rity." We have more than once adverted to Milton in connexion with the institution ; in one place as " surrendering every authoritative claim of the Lord's day, except what it derives from ecclesiastical appointment,"! and in another as having discontinued the ob- servance of public and private worship. Let us now see how the Sabbath was regarded by a few others, who, like him, by general acclaim, occupy a pre-eminent place among the intellectually great. Of Lord Bacon, it was said by Ben Jonson, that he seemed to him " one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages ;" and the lapse of time has detracted nothing from, but rather confirmed the eulogium. He erred, but who has not 1 and the following words may be regarded as the language at once of the penitent, and of the friend to Christian institutions : " I have loved the assemblies, I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary. . . . Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples." 2 Laplace, a fitting judge, has observed that the dis- coveries and profound views presented in The Principia, " will insure to it a lasting pre-eminence over all other productions of the human mind ;" and it is deeply interesting to connect with this signal tribute to the genius of Sir Isaac Newton, the state- ments of his biographer, that his observance of the religious insti- tutions of his church was irreproachable, and that the book which he read with the greatest assiduity was the Bible. ^ In the same order of minds as Bacon and Newton, although he has not attained their high reputation, or exhibited their variety of gifts, some have been disposed to rank President Edwards, of America, whose powers Hume, Mackintosh, Stewart, and Chal- mers have alike honoured, and whom Robert Hall characterized, somewhat extravagantly indeed, as the greatest of the sons of men. "Never," says Henry Rogers, "was a triumph of genius more decisive than that of Jonathan Edwards. By the concur- rent voice of all who have perused his writings, he is assigned 1 Page 152. 2 jrorA-* (1852), toI. ii. p. 405. 3 Life (Tract Society), p. 82. APPEAL. 563 one of the first, if not the very first place, among the masters of human reason."^ Now, Edwards was eminently a nurseling, as well as an unanswerable defender of the Sabbatic rest and influ- ences ; and " his observation of the Sabbath was such as to make it throughout a day of real religion ; so that not only were his conversation and reading conformed to the great design of the day, but he allowed himself in no thoughts or meditations which were not of a decidedly religious character. "^ More important far, however, than worldly rank, scholarship, talent, or genius, is moral excellence ; and it is one of the chief glories of the Sabbath that it has ever been the object of venera- tion and regard to the men who have risen to the highest point in the scale of piety, or been the most ardent in benevolent exertion and philanthropic enterprise. Where shall we find the fire of devotion and love burn more intensely than in the breasts of Baxter, Rutherford, Leighton, Brainerd, Simeon, Bickersteth ? or bowels of compassion for suffering humanity yearn more tenderly and constantly than in Howard, Clarkson, Wilberforce, Buxton ] or zeal for the glory of God, and desire for the eternal good of men glow more strongly than in Eliot, Martyn,' Carey, Chalmers 1 — all of whom felt the Sabbath to be a delight, and esteemed the holy of the Lord, honourable. And some there have been, as Jonathan Edwards, in whom it is hard to say whether the powers of intel- lect, or the religious affections, were the more transcendent. It is a memorable saying of Dr. Chalmers : " We never, in the whole course of our recollections, met with a Christian friend, who bore upon his character every other evidence of the Spirit's operation, who did not remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy ;" and the fervent M'Cheyne asks, " Can you name one godly minister, of any denomination in all Scotland, who does not hold the duty of the entire sanctification of the Lord's day ? Did you ever meet with a lively believer in any country under heaven — one who loved Christ, and lived a holy life — who did not delight in keep- ing holy to God the entire Lord's day T'^ Seco-ncl, The interests of all classes are deeply implicated in their views and treatment of the Sabbatic institution. As to 1 Essay on the Genius and Writings of Jonathan Edwards, prefixed to Works (1839), p. 1. 2 Works (1839), Life, p. ccxxv. s Memoir and Remains (1846), pp. 561, 562. 564 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. working men, it is eminently their charter — the security for their all — for their time, their health, their respectability, their defence ag-ainst the exaction of undue toil, the improvement of their minds and morals, and, above all, their means of eternal salvation. Its importance is enhanced by the numerical greatness of their (;lass, who form an immense majority, more than two-thirds of the population of the United Kingdom. According to their character and circumstances must their own millions comprise a vast amount of suffering or enjoyment, and it is impossible for them to be virtuous and comfortable, or the reverse, without aflfecting for good or evil the entire nation. The condition of the labouring portion of society has of late years largely and properly engaged the thoughts of statesmen and philanthropists. Among the elements of social good, and the remedies for prevalent evil, the value of a day of sacred rest has not been overlooked. Its friends have not neglected to remind their countrymen of its bene- ficial influence on the conduct and prosperity of those who honour its claims, and enjoy its privileges ; and of the injury that ever results from a compulsory deprivation, or a voluntary rejection of its advantages. The highest praise is due to those who have exerted themselves to difiiise information regarding the institu- tion, with the view of securing its appreciation by the great body of the people themselves, and of imparting both the power and the inclination to apply it to its holy and benevolent ends. One most gi'atifying result of the exertions alluded to, is the evidence which they have elicited of the profound regard for the Lord's day, which, derived from the religious instruction for so long a time the glory of this country, still distinguishes so many of her peasantry and artisans. And there is good reason to believe that not only has the feeling been increased, but extended to not a few who had declined from the piety of their fathers. But the welfare and happiness of the remaining portion of the community are also deeply involved in the subject before us. Although less numerous, they are certainly in some respects the more influential members of society. The middle classes imitate their superiors in dress, manners, and conduct, and are in their turn followed by multitudes who have many opportunities of hear- ing their language, knowing their opinions, and observing their APPEAL. 565 behaviour. Infidelity in France, prior to the first Revokitiou, began with the higher grades in the State ; and our country has been found to be licentious or moral as the Court and nobility have been profligate, or the reverse. It would not be easy to calculate the amount of moral injury inflicted on a rural district by a resident proprietor of profane and gambling propensities, or on the provincial town by its free-living men of wealth. How beneficial to the morals of a land if our merchants were Thorn- tons in their spirit ; if our squires had the piety and philanthropy of a Wilberforce ; if our noblemen were as devoted to the cause of benevolence as a Shaftesbury ! It is a happy sign of the times that among all these ranks there are so many counterparts of such men. And it is our singular privilege to see the personal and relative virtues, as well as the proprieties of life, daily exempli- fied in the most elevated station by our Queen and her princely Consort. Well were it for many if the maxim held good : — " Componitur orbis Eegis ad exemplum ; nee sic inflectere sensus Humanos edicta valeut, ut vita regentis." Claudiax. No classes are more concerned in the stability and observ'auce of religious institutions than the middle and upper ranks of a nation. In all countries every man should have free scope for obtaining wealth by honest industry, and for reaching distinction by the force of intellect, and by the cultivation of moral excellence. It is in proportion as religion prevails in any land, that such facili- ties exist. And when riches and honours are gained, religion is the security for the conservation of all just possessions. The Sabbath is itself the means of upholding truth aud piety, is a pillar of the throne, and a protection of property and honourable distinction against the tide of revolution. If the fear of Cod be rooted out, where is the guarantee that the king shall be honoured, the noble and the rich respected, or the laws obeyed ? Indispensable to the children of toil, the Sabbath is scarcely less important to the other orders of a State. It concerns their safety amidst materials of combustion, which it would require only a little more infi- delity and irreligion amongst themselves, and amongst their 566 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. neighbours, to kindle into a conflagration destructive of all the securities for station and property that are maintained, under Providence, by a well-observed Sabbath. And it. concerns still higher interests, since to be indifferent to the enjoyment, or to the loss of the Lord's day, is to afford too manifest a proof of disre- gard to the religion and favour of its Author, who hath said, " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul ?" But, third, the subject which has so important relations to the wise and good of jDresent and past times, and to the temporal in- terests of all classes, has still a more momentous connexion. In the world that is unseen and eternal there are and will be only two divisions and conditions of human beings, as the results of the grand Assize thus foreshown. " These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." The Sabbath has been given as a means of enabling us to shun the doom, and to gain the happiness. It is heaven let down from week to week, that we may dwell in its light, breathe its air, and hear and learn its music. Only as we redeem the opportimity are we becoming qualified, and only as we love it have we the evidence of being prepared " to rest eternally With him that is the God of Sabbath hight." Who that is wise will not follow the poet in his fervent aspira- tion ] — " 0 that great Sabbath ! God grant me that Sabbath's sight." APPENDIX. TESTIMONIES ON BEHALF OF THE SABBATH. Leighton— Doddridge— Addison— Dr. Johnson— Her^t:y — Bishop Horsley. Archbishop Leighton. — " The very life of religion dotli much de- pend ui^ou the solemn observation of this day : consider but, if we should intermit the keeping of it for one year, to what a height pro- faneness v/ould rise in those that fear not God ; which are yet restrained (though not converted) by the preaching of the Word and their out- ward partaking of public worship ; yea, those that are most spiritual would find themselves losers by the intermission." — Worhs, vol. iv. p. 14. Dr. Doddridge. — " The Lord's day was most strictly and religiously observed in his family ; and after the public and domestic ser\'ices of it, he often took them [his pupils] separately into his study, conversed with them concerning the state of religion in their souls, and gave them suitable advice. Often on the Lord's day evening he discoursed se- riously with them [his servants] by themselves, and prayed with them." —Life, by Orton, i)p. 98, 132. Addison. — " I am always very well pleased with a country Simday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institu- tion, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind." — Spectator, 'No. 112. Dr. Samuel Johnson. — The Doctor laid down the following " Rides for the Sabbath :" — 1. That he would rise early on the Sabbath, and to that end woidd retire early on Saturday night. 2. That he would engage in some iinusual devotion in the morning. 3. That he would examine the tenor of his life during the week that was gone, and mca-k his advancing in religion, or recession from it. 4. That he would read the Scripture methodically, with such helps as were at hand. 5. That he would go to church twice. 6. That he would read books of divinity, either speculative or prac- tical. 568 APPENDIX. 7. That lie would instruct liis family. 8. That he would wear off by meditation the worldly soil contracted during the week. — Boswell's Life of Johnson. Hervey. — " It grieves me much to think how much good might be done, especially by gentlemen who have leisure and abilities to plan schemes for the public benefit ; but so far are they from applying them- selves in good earnest to promote religion, that they too generally ridi- cule or discourage any attempt of this kind. Ah ! how little do they reflect that the night is coming on apace when no man can work (John ix. 4) ; and that for all these things God will bring them into judg- ment:'—Letters, No. 193. Bishop Horsley. — " In what manner the creation was conducted, is a question about a fact, and, like all questions about facts, must be determined, 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 exphcit. No expressions could be foimd 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 un- equivocal than those emj)loyed by Moses ; and they who seek or admit figurative exi>ositions 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 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 description could the word ' day' be more expressly limited to its literal and common meaning, as denoting that portion of time which is measured and con- sumed by the earth's revolution on her axis ? That this revolution was performed in the same space of time in the beginning of the world as now, I would not over confidently affirm ; but we are not at present concerned in the resokition 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, evening 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 repeated, it APPENDIX. 569 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 is, 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 worshii) of the Creator." — Sermon xxiii. Drs. Hebeeden and Abercrombte. Dr. Heberden. — "It is related of Dr. Heberden that he reduced his Sunday visits into the narrowest possible compass, and made them almost invariably compatible with a double attendance at church. His fees on that day were transmitted on the Monday morning to the churchwardens of his parish, or to some charitable agent for distri- bution to the poor and needy. His eminent qualities of heart distin- guished him highly among his professional competitors." — Christian Observer (1822), p. 505. Dr. Abercrombie " was a pattern to all, and, doubtless, especially such to you who saw him here twice every Sabbath, excepting only his last on earth." — Bruce's Funeral Sermon, p. 16. Eliot — Howard — Buxton. Eliot, the missionary. — " His observance of the Sabbath was re- markable. He knew that our whole rehgion fares according to our Sabbaths ; that poor Sabbaths make poor Christians ; and that a strict- ness in our Sabbaths inspires a vigour into all our other duties. Hence, in his work among the Indians, he brought them, by a par- ticular article, to bind themselves, as a principal means of confirming them in Christianity, ' to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy, as long as we live.' For himself, the sun did not set the evening be- fore the Sabbath till he had begun his preparation for it. Every day was a sort of Sabbath to him ; but the Sabbath-day was with him a type and foretaste of heaven : nor would you hear anything drop from his Hps on that day but the milk and honey of that country, in which there yet ' remaineth a rest for the people of God.' " — Missionary Berjister, vol. ii. (for 1814), p. 310. HowAJiD. — " Turin, Nov. 30, 1769. — My return without seeing the southern part of Italy was on much deliberation, as I feared a misim- provement of a talent spent for mere curiosity at the loss of many Sabbaths, and as many donations [to the pooi^], must be suspended for my pleasure." " Hoping," he said, at a later period, " I shall be carried safely to my native country and friends, and see the face of my dear boy in peace, remember, oh, my soul, to cultivate a more serious, humble, thankful, and resigned temper of mind. As thou hast seen more of 570 APPENDIX. the world by travelling tlian others — more of the happiness of being born in a Protestant country, and the dreadful abuse of holy Sabbaths — so may thy walk, thy Sabbaths, thy conversation, be more becoming the Holy Gospel. Let not pride and vanity hll up so much of thy thoughts ; learn here [in Rome] the vanity and folly of all earthly grandeur ; endeavour to be a wiser and better man when thou returnest. Remember many eyes will be upon thee, and, above all, the eye of that Grod before whom thou wilt shortly have to appear." " As will have been gathered from the foregoing, Sunday was with Howard a sacred day — a section of times not belonging to this life or to this world. He never travelled nor did any manner of work on it. When on the road, he rested the Sabbath over in whatsoever place the accidents of the journey might have conducted him to. If no opportunities offered for attending pubhc worship, he retired for the whole day into his secret chamber, and passed it in pious services and spiritual self -examinations." — Dixon's Life of Howard (second edition), pp. 107, 119, 120. WiLBERFORCE has been repeatedly cited in the volume, which see. Clarkson wrote an admirable letter on the subject to a convention held at Boston. — See Lorimer's Protestant or Popish Sabbath, p. 74. Sir T. F. Buxton. — "With the conviction that I stand almost on the verge of eternity ; that the days cannot be many before the secret and awful things of futurity shall be unveiled to me ; that ere long I must be an inhabitant of the world of spirits, and that then my eyes will assuredly see that Christ, whose name I bear, royally attended with an innumerable company of angels descending from heaven to judge me and all mankind ; and that then my ears will hear the sound of the trumpet which shall summon all flesh before His j^resence ; and that on me must be pronounced that irrevocable sentence — ' Come, you blessed,' or ' Depart, you ciu-sed.' " Seeing, then, that those earthly things must be dissolved, what manner of person ought I to be! Then, good and gracious Spirit, teach me this, thou blessed Lord, who instructs the ignorant and suc- cours the weak, do thou, in compassion to a soul very ignorant and desperately weak, but nevertheless with some desire after a higher and hoKer walk than heretofore, do thou in mercy be my guide and teacher. " Let me, then, picture the character I ought to be. A Christian in faith. This is beyond doubt the great point to be obtained. . . . What then are the acts which correspond with a true and sound faith ? " The habit of prayer. " The habit of watching the mercies of God, and solemnly returning thanks for them. I am sometimes inclined to think that I have been peculiarly the child of Providence. At all events, how much have I to be thankful for, and how poor and dull is my abiding sense of gra- titude. There is something very alarming in the question, Were APPENDIX. 571 there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine ? Oh, may I not be of the number who ' returned not to give glory to God. ' " The habit of kindness, courtesy, tender-heartedness. ... ^ ' ' The habit of doing, and seeking to do, all the good in my power. God has given me a portion of property, station, reputation, intellec- tual energy ; such as they are, God gave them, and to His service must the influence they give be dedicated. " The habit of dedicating the Sabbath to its jieculiar duties, — not wasting its precious hours, not worshipping God with a wandering and unsteady mind, not stealing its moments for secular purposes. " The habit of calling myself to account for the use I make of my money, my time, my powers." — Life (1852), pp. 305-307. Lord Bacon — Locke — Forbes. Lord Bacon. — A Christian " thinks sometimes that the ordinances of God do him no good, yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them." — Worhs (1855), vol. ii. j^. 230. " It is an easy thing to call for the observance of the Sabbath-day ; liut what actions and works may be done on the Sabbath, and what not ; to set this down, and clear the whole matter with good distinc- tions 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." — Works (1730), vol. iv. p. 429. " In the distribution of days, we see the day wherein God did rest and contemplate His own works was blessed above all the days where- in He did effect and accomplish them." — Worlcs (1852), vol. i. p. 175. Locke. — "Besides his particular calling for the support of life, 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 imderstanding the words and framing the general notions relating to religion right. The one day in seven, besides other days of rest, allows in the Christian world 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 themselves to an improvement of knowledge with as much diligence as they often do to a great many other things that are useless." — Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 8. Principal Forbes. — " 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 572 APPENDIX. 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." — Rev. D. C. A. Agnew's Occasional Papers on Sabbath Observance. No. ]'2. RuDDiMAN — Creech — Professor Lee. RuDDiMAN "was frugal of his time, and moderate, both in his ]>leasures and amusements. His day was usually employed in the following manner. He rose early and devoted the morning to study. During the sittings 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 became 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, wliich, in the presence of his family, and with the Reverend Mr. Harper, was dedicated to the service of God." — Life, p. 276. Mr. Creech, the bookseller, wrote a remarkable sketch of the man- ners of the people of Edinburgh at different periods, of which the following are specimens : — In 1763. — It was fashionable to go to church, and people were in- terested about religion. Sunday was strictly observed by all ranks as a day of devotion, and it was disgraceful to be seen on the streets during the time of public worship. FamiUes attended chiirch 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 par- ticiilarly by the men. Sunday was by many made a day of relaxation ; and young people were allowed to stroll aboiit 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 ev^enings were frequently loose and riotous ; par- ticularly 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 remarkable than in the decency, dignity, and delicacy of the one period, com- pared with the looseness, dissipation, and hcentiousness of the other. Many people ceased to blush at what would formerly have been reckoned a crime. APPENDIX. 573 Professor Samuel Lee.— "The seventh month and the seventh day of this month were held sacred among the Greeks, as having been honoured by the birth of Apollo. The first, the seventh, and four- teenth day of every month, were also held as holy days ; and of these, the first and seventh were dedicated to Apollo. The twenty-fourth, as being the seventh counting backwards from the first of the next month, was also a holiday — (See Meursius, tom. iii. ^j«ss»?i; and Syrhius De Sabbatho GentiU, in the 17th tom. of Thesaurus of Ugolinus) — so that something extremely like a recurring seventh day was cer- tainly memorialized by the Greeks, as was the seventh month. And these learned fathers (Aristobulus, 0. C. Alexand. Eusebius) have nowhere said that they meant by these citations, to inculcate the doc- trine of a i^erpetually recurring day. Nor is it necessary to suppose, that if the Greeks took this sejitenary notion of time from the Jews or the Patriarchs, they must necessarily aj^ply it precisely as they did. And as some of these verses manifestly apply to the close of the works of creation, and speak in terms not unlike those used in the Revelation when hallowing the seventh day, it strikes me that those fathers have not mistaken the poets they cited, but that Mr. Selden must have mistaken these Fathers. Another objection is, that some of these passages cannot now be found in Homer, etc. This is frivolous. It is too much to suppose that those eminently learned Fathers were unac- quainted with the authors whom they cite, as it is that these works have come down entire to our times." — Sermon on the Duty of Observiny the Christian Sabbath, Notes 35, 36. COWPER. " De sacris autem lisec sit una seuteutia, ut conserventur."— Cic. De. Leg. " But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate." ' ' He lives who lives to God alone, And all are dead beside ; For other source than God is none, Whence life can be suppUed. " To live to God is to requite His love as best we may : To make His precepts our dehglit. His promises our stay. " But life within a narrow ring Of giddy joys comprised. Is falsely named, and no such thing. But rather death disgiused. ' ' Can life in them deserve the name. Who only live to prove For what poor toys they can disclaim An endless life above ? 574 APPENDIX. " Who, mucli diseased, yet uothing feel ; Mueli menaced, nothing dread ; Have wonnds, wliicli only God can heal, Yet never ask His aid ? " Who deem His house a useless place, Faith, want of common sense ; And ardour in the Christian race, ' A hypocrite's pretence ? " Who trample order ; and the day Which God asserts His own. Dishonour with imhallow'd play, And worship chance alone ? " If scorn of God's commands, impress'd On word and deed, imply The better part of man unblessed With life that cannot die ; " Such want it, and that want uncured Till man resigns his breath. Speaks him a criminal, assured Of everlasting death. " Sad period to a pleasant course ! Yet so will God repay Sabbaths profaned without remorse. And mercy cast away." Lord Kames— President Adams— Lord Gambier— Princess Charlotte AND Prince Leopold. Loud Kames. — "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 eqiial in the presence of God ; and, when a congregation pray for mercy and protection, one must be in- flamed with good-will and brotherly love to all. In the next place, the serious and devout tone of mind, inspired by pubHc worship, sug- gests naturally self-examination. Retired 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, Sunday is a day of rest from worldly concerns, in order to be more usefully employed upon those that are internal. Sunday, accordingly, is a day of account, and a candid account every seventh day is the best preparation for the great day of account. A person who diligently follows out this pre- paratory discipline will seldom be at a loss to answer for his own con- duct, called upon by God or man. This leads me naturally to condemn APPENDIX. 575 the practice of abandoning to diversion or meiTiment what remains of Sunday after public worship, such as parties of pleasure, gaming, etc., or anything that triiies away the time without a serious thought, as if the purpose were to cancel every virtuous impression made at public worship. ' ' Unhappily this salutary institution can only be preserved in vigour diu'ing the days of piety and virtue. Power and opulence are the dar- ling objects of every nation ; and yet, in every nation possessed of jjower and opulence, \T.rtue subsides, selfishness prevails, and sensua- lity becomes the ruling passion. Then it is that the most sacred insti- tutions first lose their hold, next are disregarded, and at last are made a subject of ridicule." — Creech's Fugitive Pieces, p. 182. President (Quincy) Adams at the National Convention said, "I al- ways felt myself under obligation to observe that law which was given by God himself from Mount Sinai, in those solemn words : ' Remember the Sabbath-day to keej) it holy ;' a command which was subsequently renewed and re-enforced by the Saviour of mankind ; and so far as propagating opinions in favour of the sacred observance of the day, I feel it to be my duty to give all the faculties of my soul to that sub- ject."— Second Annual Beiyort of Ainerican Sabbath Union, pp. 14, 15. Lord Gambier. — " Whether at sea or on shore, our departed friend didy and devotedly observed the day of the Lord, that day which is so awfully desecrated in this Christian land. During the thirty years that I had the happiness to number him in my congregation, his attend- ance in the sanctuary was uniform. Whoever was absent, he was there, as long as the state of his health would admit. Nor did he think it sufficient to come once to worship on the Sabbath : this pious servant of God made conscience of attending both the morning and evening services ; and whenever the Lord's Supper was administered, he was a regiUar guest at the sacred table." — Ward's Funeral Sermon for Admired Lo7-d Gambier. He refers to his devout and fervent man- ner in worship, — and his piety as not confined to stated seasons of devotion, but hallowing and gladdening his whole Hfe. — Christian Observer (1833), 507. 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 feature in their domestic arrangements. Divine service was regularly attended ; and the evening hours of the sacred day were employed in the jierusal of pious writings, or in exercises suited to its design." — Sermon by Dr. John CampbeU (1817), p. 14. EDINBURGH : T. 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