V.

A man's withered hand restored.

LUKE vi. 6, &c.

And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

And the Scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.

IN

N the beginning of this chapter we are told, that our Lord, passing through some fields of corn on the sabbath, his disciples being hungry, (as St. Matthew says,) plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them between their hands. Upon this, certain of the Pharisees, who, some or other of them, seldom failed to be with our Saviour, as spies upon his actions, and watching opportunities of informing against him, reproved them for doing that which was not lawful to do on the sabbath day. But why was it not lawful? There is nothing in the law of Moses against the thing itself, but it is expressly allowed; and as for its being done on the sabbath day, how could the fourth commandment be broken by plucking a few ears of corn, unless their hypocritical zeal thought their rubbing them afterwards in their hands, to get the grain out of the ear the better, was a kind of threshing, and too laborious for that day of rest. Or, it may be, it was upon b Matt. xii. 2. c Deut. xxiii. 25.

a Matt. xii. 1. and Luke vi. 1.

account of a custom that then prevailed among them, of not tasting any thing on the sabbath till morning prayers were finished in the synagogue; and so this action of the disciples was a breach of the tradition of their fathers.

However, Christ excused his disciples by the example of David's eating the shewbread, to satisfy his own and his attendants' hunger, when nothing else could be had, which yet was plainly unlawful for any to eat of but the priests aloned; and if their necessity could excuse them for the breach of a positive law, his disciples' hunger might as well excuse them for the breach of a custom only, which nothing had made binding but men's general agreement in the observation of it.

But, besides this, he told them that the Son of man was Lord also of the sabbath; intimating, that he had power to dispense with the strict observation of it, as to bodily rest, as he thought fit; and even to alter the seventh for some other day of the week, if he so pleased, for the stated time of God's public worship; and which was, in a few years after, actually done by his apostles, and his whole church ever since.

Now it came to pass that on another sabbath, probably the next, he entered into the synagogue, and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered; a poor labouring man, a mason, as some of the ancients tell us, who by that misfortune was rendered incapable of getting his livelihood by his trade, as formerly, and was become a great object of charity, and fain to be beholden to the relief of others for his maintenance. Upon this d Matt. xii. 3. 1 Sam. xxi. 6.

man our blessed Lord fixing his compassionate eyes, and the Scribes and Pharisees that were there observing it, they thought that would be a good opportunity of knowing more of his mind concerning the sabbath; and, as St. Matthew tells us, asked him whether it was lawful to heal on the sabbath day. That so, if he had said any thing to the dishonour of that holy day, they might accuse hime. And then they stood to watch and observe what he would say and do upon that occasion.

Upon this, our Lord, knowing their wicked thoughts and designs upon him, called to the man that had the withered hand, and said, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. And then he answered the Pharisees' question to him by another, and said unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And finding them all silent, (for no answer could be given but what would some way or other expose them to the people,) and the poor man being full of expectation of a cure, looking round about upon them all with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hands. And he did so; which before it was impossible for him to do, it was so shrivelled and shrunk up, and lifeless; and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus 1.

Another relation we have, Luke xiii. 11, of a woman that for eighteen years had had a strange ing Mark iii. 5.

e Matt. xii. 10.

f Luke vi. 8.

h Luke vi. 10, II.

firmity, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. Her likewise Jesus cured in one of their synagogues on the sabbath day, and made her straight; and when the ruler of the synagogue was angry at the people for coming on that day to be healed, Jesus rebuked him sharply, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

And the same day, probably, as he went to dine with one of the chief Pharisees, there was a man laid in his way that had the dropsy; and he asked the lawyers and Pharisees, as he had done before, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they still held their peace. Then he took him and healed him, and let him go; and said unto them, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things.

Now our Lord upon all occasions, by his actions and his discourses, endeavouring to bring the people off from the superstitious notions they had entertained of the sabbath, and the bodily rest that was so carefully to be observed upon it; and to convince them that nothing was more acceptable to God, nor more suitable to the holiness of that day, than to imitate him in works of mercy and beneficence: it is highly probable his aim and design was to prepare them for that change which he knew would

Luke xiv. 1, &c.

afterwards be made in his church, (and very likely by his own direction,) of the last for the first day of the week, in remembrance of his glorious resurrection from the dead, and make them more readily to comply with it, when their excessive reverence for the seventh day sabbath was by this means something abated. But because the fourth commandment in the Decalogue seems to be inconsistent with such an alteration, and causes many scruples in some well-meaning people's minds, it will not be amiss to take this opportunity to set this matter in as clear a light as is consistent with the designed brevity of these observations; referring the reader for further satisfaction to those that have written more largely upon this subject j.

Now as for the fourth commandment, from whence is derived all the certain obligation the Israelites had for keeping every seventh day holy, as a sabbath or day of rest to the Lord; (for as for the practice of the patriarchs in this matter, though no doubt but they had set days appropriated to public divine worship, yet that it was every seventh day I think does no where sufficiently appear, much less precisely the seventh from the creation, the memory of which very probably was lost till God was pleased to restore it ;) as for the fourth commandment, I say, there is a twofold reason given for the observation of it. The one is in the close of the commandment itself; namely, because God rested from the works of the creation on the seventh day, and therefore blessed that day and hallowed it, or set it apart for God's most holy use; that his people might spend

j See Mr. Morer's late treatise upon this argument. k Exod. xvi. 27.