the temporary and ceremonial law-and separate and single out the decalogue, in point of dignity and prominence, from all other enactments? The whole Bible contains nothing so peculiar and majestic, as this introduction to this new dispensation. Where is the man that would venture to lessen the number of the commandments? Where is the man that, from ten, will presume to reduce them to nine? Where is the professed Christian that will expunge the command which happens most to militate against the corrupt practices of mankind? Where is the man that will obliterate the very precept, which so immediately respects the honour of God and the glory offered to his name?—which, standing in the very heart of the code, binds its injunctions together, and gives strength and consistence to the whole ?

I conceive it is impossible for simple-minded Christians to consider these things, and not to see at once the marked distinction between the shadow and types of a particular dispensation, and the eternal rules of right and wrong. Their prayer, I am persuaded, will continue to be, as to each particular commandment, and as to the fourth no less than the others, Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law ;" and as to the entire series, without exception or difference, "Lord, write all these thy laws on our hearts, we beseech thee.”

II. But we proceed to show, that even when the

CEREMONIAL USAGES WERE IN THEIR GREATEST VIGOUR, THE SABBATH APPEARED HIGH AND DISTINCT

ABOVE THEM.

For the law of the weekly rest passes through the Mosaical dispensation. It will be important, then, to show its position during this part of its course. It entered this economy, or rather preceded it, by the promulgation of the moral law, of whose majesty and perpetuity it partakes. It now, however, receives additional rules and appendages, which attend it during the continuance of the Mosaic dispensation. But it is remarkable that these

'Liturgy of Church of England.

ceremonial enactments are no part of the essential law of the Sabbath as inserted in the decalogue; and that even during the greatest vigour and first observance of them, the moral obligation of the day of weekly rest lifts up its head high and distinct above them. These are the points which we have here to prove.

For the Sabbath is now a part of that preparatory dispensation, and is attired, as it were, with robes of state and ceremony during that period. Two lambs are offered on its weekly return, beside the usual burnt-offering; the shew-bread is renewed on the golden table; the ministers of the temple enter on their courses; other times of holy solemnity are instituted and included under the general name of Sabbaths; its external rest is enforced with temporal sanctions; the presumptuous violator of it is subjected to the punishment of death; it is constituted a sign of the national covenant, and is enjoined as a public protest against idolatry; finally, the spirit of bondage and condemnation lowers over this part, as over every other, of the introductory economy of Moses.

Here, then, for the first time, we perceive and recognize the features of a ceremonial Sabbath. Many commandments of the decalogue, and the fourth amongst the number, are now invested with temporary statutes, as "shadows of good things to come," or parts of the peculiar theocracy of the Jews.

But the essential moral character of each precept of the decalogue loses none of its force by these additional ceremonies and judicial statutes. The sin of worshipping any but the one true God, remains just as great, after all the numerous enactments peculiar to the Jews. The sin of making graven images, of taking God's name in vain, of disobeying parents, of committing murder, adultery, theft, of bearing false witness, of coveting the goods of our neighbour, are precisely the same violations of the immutable rules of right and wrong, as before the temporary enactments which affected the chosen people. In like manner, the fourth commandment is unaltered in its essential injunction of a periodical religious rest for the service of God, though it is associated with many temporary

and figurative appendages. Nothing can be clearer than this. The principle is admitted with regard to nine of the commandments, and can never be fairly refused as to the tenth.

And accordingly not one of these ceremonial and civil statutes is incorporated in the ten commandments themselves—not one is written with the finger of God—not one is found on the consecrated tables-not one is deposited within the ark of the covenant. They are all delivered afterwards, in another form, with other views, and to occupy another station.

But let us go on and follow the Sabbath as it passes through the ceremonial dispensation. It might, indeed, have pleased God, that it should have been entirely shrouded by this dispensation during its continuance. It would then have lost none of its original force, and we should merely have had to resume our consideration of it, after it had been disembarrassed from the emblematical ceremonies. But this is not the state of the case. The Sabbath lifts up its head high above all the ceremonial usages, even in the Pentateuch itself, and during the full vigour of the introductory economy.

For first, after the record of the promulgation of the decalogue, three chapters of judicial statutes follow; but in the midst of these, the people are reminded of the essential importance of the Sabbath, in a manner quite distinct and peculiar. It is associated with the primary duty of worshipping the one true God, as being of equal obligation, and indeed necessary to it. "Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest.

in all things that I have said unto thee, be circumspect, and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth." This is sufficiently remarkable.

Again, after six chapters more concerning the tabernacle and its various services and sacrifices, the whole communication of the forty days' abode on the mount is concluded with a re-inculcation of the Sabbath

1 Exod. xxiii. 12, 13.

rest, in a manner the most solemn and affecting. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD THAT DOTH SANCTIFY YOU. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant, It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Can any thing give dignity to the sacred day as founded in the essential relation of man to his Maker and Redeemer, if this sublime language does not? Every idea of sanctification, every sense of importance from a sign of a covenant between God and man, every sanction derived from the awful punishment of death, unite to impress upon us the duty; whilst the proportion noted between the working days and the day of rest, and the reason drawn from the order of creation, extend the obligation to every human being.

3

In the following two chapters we have as many additional recapitulations, with fresh cautions. The book of Exodus closes. The enactments concerning sacrifices and purifications are, however, no sooner despatched in the following book, than we meet with a passage in which one commandment of the second table of the moral law, and two of the first, are united with the fourth commandinent as of equal obligation, and this as a matter well known and requiring no explanation; "Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths. I

1 Exod. xxi. 12—17.

am the Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten images: I am the Lord your God."

I will not dwell on other passages in this book. I hasten to fix your attention on the punishment of death inflicted on the Sabbath-breaker, as recorded in the next. Few persons consider how deeply this case is designed to impress us with the essential obligation of the fourth commandment, and of the immediate honour of God involved in a presumptuous violation of it. This last point is not to be overlooked. The man was not condemned merely for gathering sticks on the Sabbath; but for doing this in the face of the divine prohibition. Accordingly he was put in ward, till the will of God should be distinctly known. The whole proceeding was marked with a calm solemnity which makes the warning more pointed and decisive. The "soul that doeth aught PRESUMPTUOUSLY, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same REPROACHETH THE LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people; because he hath DESPISED the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day. And they that found him gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death.""

I add only the striking passage, in which, at the close of life, Moses re-inculcates, as a preacher, the commandments which he had delivered before as a legislator. In this recapitulation, the other nine precepts of the decalogue stand as they were first promulgated from Mount Sinai-at least the variations are extremely slight; but the fourth is amplified and enforced with many additional motives, as if it claimed more regard than any other.

1 Lev.xix. 1-4.

2 Numb. xv. 30-35.