But it is time to close the discussion, which has been necessarily long. A case has been made out which commends itself, I trust, to every attentive hearer, and which strengthens the proofs of our preceding discourses, and carries on the argument to a moral demonstration. I have dwelt at length on the conduct and doctrine of our Lord, because it is the only point of apparent difficulty. The first blush of the other objections condemns them. But the objection raised from this has its plausibility; it demanded and has rewarded our examination. I feel confident that in the main, the view now presented is the true one. If any doubt is suffered to rest on the question, whether our Saviour violated the ceremonial law of the Sabbath, it is a subordinate point. Supposing he did violate the letter of this law, it was as 66 the Lord of the Sabbath," in the discharge of the highest of all commissions that of the Saviour of mankind. The topics which would remain would still be conclusive-that our Lord honoured and reverenced the institution itself— based his defence of what he did and said with regard to it on the Old Testament, and the admitted usages of the Mosaic dispensation-only opposed the false commandments of the traditionary doctors-and left the moral and substantial duty untouched. These points would be admitted. Add then, to these, the express recognition of the ten commandments by Christ and his apostles-the conduct of the apostles in honouring the Sabbath after his example and the special office of the Holy Ghost under the gospel, augmenting the obligation, whilst it facilitates the discharge of its duties-and we have an accumulation of evidence which requires no aid from the question of our Lord's exact conformity to the ceremonial law.

Let any one apply the argument as thus deduced from the reasonings and conduct of Christ concerning the moral law of the Sabbath, to any statute of human legislation which had been loaded with unauthorized usages, and let him ask himself, what would be the necessary effect of such reasoning and such conduct upon the authority of the original provisions of the statute; and he

would instantly say, the establishment of that authority in its real and paramount force.'

I conceive that the duty of dedicating one day in seven to the worship of Almighty God, was so wrought into the consciences of all his true servants in every age, after its re-promulgation in the moral law had revived the memory of its glory as infixed in the order of creation-and that the observance of it was so reasonable in itself, so necessary to man, as man, and so delightful also to the devout mind-that the thought would never have occurred to any creature, that our Lord abrogated the fourth commandment. THE JEWS ACCUSED HIM OF BREAKING IT, BUT NEVER OF DENYING ITS OBLIGATION OR SAPPING ITS CLAIMS. The Jews at the time of Christ were indignant even at the violation of their oral precepts concerning the Sabbath, and they carried their prejudices with them into the Christian church. The Gentile converts had many of them been accustomed to religious festivals and days of repose-the corruptions and faint vestiges of the original Sabbath. All therefore were prepared for keeping the fourth, as well as every other of THE COMMANDMENTS. There was no one to deny its divine authority; and when the gracious interpretation of its true import by our Lord, and the change of the day to the commemoration of his Resurrection (as we shall see in the next discourse) were acquiesced in, the ends of the institution were fulfilled in the celebration of the divine praises in creation, in redemption, in grace, and in the anticipations of the heavenly repose.

I. YIELD, then, Christian brethren, to these accumulated proofs. Open your hearts to the gracious Saviour, that he may re-establish there the authority of the day of his heavenly Father. Consider the many additional motives to its observance which flow from the compassion of your Redeemer; mark his tenderness in asserting the day of rest for its proper spiritual purposes; observe his

For example, the question of pauperism in England-the original law for the care of the aged and infirm, cleared from the abuses afterwards superinduced.

permission of those works of real necessity and mercy which render an attendance on them more practicable. You have not a Saviour who allows the Sabbath to be buried under the rubbish of human commandments. You have not a Saviour who, from indifference or cowardice, fears to put down the pharisaical imposers of austerities. No. Behold! he enters the synagogue on the holy Sabbath-he teaches; he applies to himself the divine prophecies concerning the Messiah; he heals the sick in confirmation of his doctrine; he rebukes devils, and they leave the possessed and proclaim his name and glory. It is on the Sabbath that he does this; and it is in this way that, as the Messiah, he DISTINGUISHES AND HONOURS it.

He vindicates his disciples plucking the ears of corn -he anoints the eyes of a blind man with clay-he bids the dropsy quit the frame of one patient, and bids another extend his withered arm-he commands the devout worshipper, bowed for eighteen years, and she raises herself to glorify God-he strengthens the impotent man, after thirty-eight years of hopeless dejection, to carry miraculously his couch, and in that act to prove his cure. Blessed Jesus! in all this we see thee to be a "merciful and faithful high priest." In all this we see thy pity in vindicating the day of rest to its proper purposes. In all this we see, not the lawgiver, not the prophet, not Moses, not Elias--but JESUS, the wise and merciful Saviour of mankind. Hadst thou not, O Saviour, thus cleared up the law of the Sabbath by this thine holy example and doctrine, how long might thy church have been perplexed with doubts-how much might superstition and tyranny over the conscience have prevailed! How little might have been left to man of the real design and consolation of the day of rest! But now thou hast vindicated the truth. Now thou hast taught, not only that" THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN," but that " MAN WAS NOT MADE FOR THE SABBATH." Now we have nothing to do under thy new dispensation, but drop the temporary ceremonies of the Mosaic law, and return to the simplicity of the patriarchal worship, inspired and elevated with the grace of thy all-bountiful Spirit.

II. And here let us learn, Christian brethren, to shun the INGRATITUDE OF MAKING USE OF THE COMPASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR TO THE TACIT DISPARAGEMENT OF THE SABBATH ITSELF, which our Lord, as we have seen, has honoured by the very acts which were alleged as infringing its sanctity. If the intention of our Saviour was, as I am fully convinced every fair and unprejudiced hearer will admit, to magnify his heavenly Father's institution-if every denunciation against the hypocrisy and severity of the Pharisees was so much of real dignity and authority added to the Sabbath; then let us beware of the guilt of abusing all this to unrighteousness and irreligion. What avails that God allows works of necessity and mercy to be done on the Sabbath, if your practice desecrates the whole day by works of folly and sin? What avails it that God will have mercy and not sacrifice," when you give him neither? Surely no abuse of the divine goodness can be more criminal than to take occasion, from a sympathy so exuberant, to rob God of his due, our souls of their best blessings, the poor of their season of repose, the church of the edification of our example. Surely this is a branch of that practical antinomianism which "turns the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into lasciviousness." And be it well remembered, that if we once violate conscience in our search after truth, there is no telling whither we may wander. The calm examination of the question of the Sabbath is our bounden duty. I am endeavouring to assist you in the inquiry. At the points where mistakes may arise, I have put you on your guard. Time for settling the judgment I readily allow differences on minor branches of the argument I cheerfully concede. But this I must remind you of; fear, reverence, faith, simple subjection of soul to the truth, are essential to all religious inquiries. Yield, then, to the call of grace. Abuse not the mercy of your Saviour. Rather implore that spiritual influence of the grand Comforter, which may render the duties of the Christian Sabbath a delight and joy.

1 Ogden.

66 LAW

You

III. And this is our last point of application. The Jewish Sabbath is no more. It is for the Christian we plead-THAT CHRISTIAN SABBATH FOR WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ESPECIALLY GIVEN. The yoke, not only of pharisaical impositions, but of ceremonial observances, is broken off your neck. The law of the Sabbath is now a law of love, a law of gratitude, a OF LIBERTY," as the apostle James terms it, in common with the whole moral law. You must imbibe this filial and gracious spirit, in order to have the true conception of the importance of the institution, and the right feelings for rejoicing in it. The despite done to the Holy Spirit is one cause of the neglect of the sacred day. You seek not his influences to enlarge and purify the heart. You seek not his consolations to animate your devotion. You complain that the Sabbath is a heavy day, to be got over as well as you can. have no taste for its spiritual duties, no joy at its return, no repose in its divine anticipations. What does this go to prove ? That you are yet in the state of fallen nature and that, as such, you "receive not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto you, neither can you know them, because they are spiritually discerned ?" What does this prove, but that you want the love of God, the spiritual life, the vital perceptions of a soul quickened by the Holy Spirit? Proceed then no further. Persist not in a course which only condemns your state of heart. Seek the illuminating and sanctifying influence of the Spirit. Almost the first truth you will discover, will be THE GLORY AND MAJESTY OF THE SABBATH; and the next, that the exercises of that day are the festival and nourishment and element of the renewed and holy heart. Yes, all the transport of the Psalmist, all his repose and joy in God, all his mourning when banished from his courts, all his longing, yea, fainting after his house, all his perception of satisfaction, and relief, and holy pleasure in his service, will be experienced, in proportion as the vivifying Spirit quickens your soul. Men who are formal in religion, naturally

1 Cor. ii. 14.