Sabbath, that is, the seventh day, which was consecrated to God from the beginning of the world, Gen. ii. 2, 3. but which (as stated above, Book I. chap. x.) was not, so far as we can learn, observed, or commanded to be observed, till the second month of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, Exod. xvi. 1, 23, 25, 29. when it was enforced with severe prohibitions: v. 23. to-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto Jehovah; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. xx. 8, &c. remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy; that is, remember it according to the previous commandment in the sixteenth chapter, referred to above; or it may be an emphatic manner of admonition. xxxi. 14. ye shall keep the sabbath-day therefore, for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death. xxxiv. 21. in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. xxxv. 2, 3. a sabbath of rest to Jehovah...... ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath-day. Lev. xxiii. 3. six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation. Num. xv. 32, &c. they found a man that gathered sticks on the sabbath-day. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20, 21. them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon......until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths. Jer. xvii. 21, 22. bear no burthen on the sabbath-day. Nehem. x. 31. if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath-day to sell, that we would not buy it of them—. xiii. 15, &c. in those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath.

The command to observe the Sabbath was given to the Israelites for a variety of reasons, mostly peculiar to themselves, and which are recorded in different parts of the Mosaic law. First, as a memorial of God's having completed the work of creation on the seventh day. Exod. xx. 11. xxxi. 15-17. wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant...... for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. Here

although the reason given for the celebration of the Sabbath applies equally to all other nations, the Israelites alone are enjoined to observe it; as is also the case with the command to abstain from creeping things, Levit. xi. 44. ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; with the law against disfiguring the body, and other similar commands, Deut. xiv. 1, &c. ye are the children of God; for the reasons on which these precepts are founded apply equally to believers in general, and to all ages, although the precepts themselves are no no longer obligatory. This has been remarked by our countryman Ames." • Non est catholicæ veritatis illa regula interpretandi scripturas quæ tradi solet a quibusdam, officia illa omnia esse moralia et immutabilia quæ rationes morales et immutabiles habent sibi annexas; nisi sic intelligatur

9 Dr. William Ames, a Puritan divine in the time of James and Charles the First, and Professor of Divinity in the University of Franeker, a town of the Netherlands, in Friesland. It was partly from the work quoted above, and partly from The Abridgement of Christian Divinitie by Wollebius, that Milton, according to Phillips, compiled for the use of his pupils a system of divinity, which they wrote on Sundays at his dictation. An English translation of Ames's treatise was published by order of the House of Commons in 1642, under the title of The Marrow of Sacred Divinity, drawne out of the Holy Scriptures and the Interpreters thereof, and brought into method. It is divided into two books, of which the first, entitled On Faith in God, contains forty-one chapters, and the second, On Observance toward God, twenty-two. It is quite evident that Milton has frequently availed himself of this volume, both in the distribution of his subject and arrangement of the chapters, which frequently coincides with that of Ames, and in particular passages and applications of Scripture; though their opinions differ materially on several important points. The translation is very badly executed, as the version of the passage quoted in the text will show. "That rule therefore of interpreting the Scriptures which is wont to be delivered by some, is not universally true; that all those duties [are] morall and immutable, which have morall and immutable reasons joyned to them; except it be thus understood, that those duties doe follow upon those reasons, no speciall command coming betweene." Milton quotes in his Tetrachordon the definition of marriage given by Ames, and passes a just censure on it. See Prose Works, II. 141. The Treatise of Wollebius is also divided into two parts, On the Knowledge and On the Worship of God, the first comprised in thirty-six, and the second in fourteen chapters. The plan of the latter division is very similar to the corresponding portion of Milton's work, and not only the arguments, but even whole sentences are sometimes almost identically the same.

ut illa officia sequantur ex illis rationibus, nullo singulari Dei præcepto intercedente.' Ames, Medull. Theol. lib. ii. c. 13. This however cannot be said either of the precepts above-mentioned, or of the Sabbath.

Secondly, because God was pleased by this distinguishing mark to separate the Israelites from other nations. Exod. xxxi. 13, &c. it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you; ye shall keep the sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Ezek. xx. 12. to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctify them. See also v. 20.

Thirdly, that the slaves and cattle might enjoy a respite from labour. Exod. xxiii. 12. that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. Deut. v. 12, 14. keep the sabbath-day......that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. This reason applies only where servants are in a state of slavery, and subject to severe labour; the condition of hired servants, who are now generally employed, being much easier than that of purchased slaves in old time.

Fourthly, in remembrance of their liberation from Egypt. Deut. v. 15. remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath-day.

Fifthly, as a shadow or type of things to come. Col. ii. 16, 17. 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. Of what things to come the sabbaths are a shadow, we are taught Heb. iv. 9, 10. namely, of that sabbatical rest or eternal peace in heaven, of which all believers are commanded to strive to be partakers through faith and obedience, following the example of Christ.

not forbidden on the Sabbath, Mark ii. 27. the sabbath was sabbath. iii. 4. is it lawful to

Works of charity and mercy were upon the authority of Christ himself. made for man, and not man for the do good on the sabbath-days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? Luke xiii. 15, 16. doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox- ? ...... ought not this woman to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day? xiv. 5. which of you shall have an ox or an ass fallen into a pit, &c. John vii. 23. are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath-day? Even for a man to take up his bed, v. 11. although consonant to the spirit of the law, was contrary to its letter, Jer. xvii. 21, 22.

Since then the Sabbath was originally an ordinance of the Mosaic law, since it was given to the Israelites alone, and that for the express purpose of distinguishing them from other nations, it follows that, if (as was shown in the former book) those who live under the gospel are emancipated from the ordinances of the law in general, least of all can they be considered as bound by that of the Sabbath, the distinction being abolished which was the special cause of its institution.' It was for asserting this in precept, and enforcing it by example, that Christ incurred the heavy censure of the Pharisees, John ix. 16. this man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath-day. Gal. iv. 9, 10. 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. Col. ii. 16, 17. let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days. If it be contended, that it is only the septennial, and not the seventh day sabbath which is said by Paul to be abrogated, I reply, first, that no exception is here made; and, secondly, that it may as well be contended that baptism is not meant Heb.

1

See Book I. Chap. xxvii. and the note in p. 412. To what is there said may be added the following passage from A brief History of Moscovia. Milton is speaking of the Russian church. They hold the ten commandments not to concern them, saying that God gave them under the law, which Christ by his death on the cross hath abrogated.' Prose Works, IV. 280.

vi. 2. on account of the plural noun baptisms. Besides, it is certain that the words sabbath and sabbaths are used indiscriminately of the seventh day; Exod. xxxi. 13, 14. Isai. lvi. 2, 4, 6. Whoever therefore

denies that under the words of the apostle, in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is comprehended, may as well deny that it is spoken of 2 Chron. ii. 4. or viii. 13. or xxxi. 3. from which passages the words of Paul seem to be taken.

The law of the Sabbath being thus repealed, that no particular day of worship has been appointed in its place, is evident from the same apostle, Rom. xiv. 5. one man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike: let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. For since, as was observed above, no particular place is designated under the gospel for the public worship of God, there seems no reason why time, the other circumstance of worship, should be more defined. If Paul had not intended to intimate the abolition of all sabbaths whatever, and of all sanctification of one day above another, he would not have added in the following verse, he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. For how does he not regard the day to the Lord, if there be any commandment still in force by which a particular day, whether the Sabbath or any other, is to be observed?

It remains to be seen on what they ground their opinion, who maintain that the Lord's day is to be observed as set apart for publie worship by divine institution, in the nature of a new sabbath. It is urged, first, that God rested on the seventh day. This is true; and with reason, inasmuch as he had finished a great work, the creation

2. What but a vain shadow else is the abolition of those ordinances, that hand-writing nailed to the cross? What great purchase is this Christian liberty which Paul so often boasts of? His doctrine is, that he who eats or eats not, regards a day or regards it not, may do either to the Lord. Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. Prose Works, I. 327.