"Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God commanded thee: six days thou shalt 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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And remember thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretchedout arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day." What a distinction does this amplitude of detail confer on the law of the Sabbath! And how does this and the passages before cited, take out this commandment from the mere ceremonial and positive institutions with which for a time it is mingled, and lift up its head in the midst of the temporary and fugitive elements of the Jewish polity! How evidently does even the Pentateuch exhibit it as a moral precept, directed to the highest ends, beyond what was peculiar to the Mosaical dispensation, and losing nothing of its permanent and essential force from the combination!

III. But proceed we to show that, in the latter ages of the Jewish church, the weekly Sabbath was insisted upon BY THE PROPHETS AS OF ESSENTIAL MORAL OBLIGATION, AND AS DESTINED TO FORM A PART OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION.

Hitherto the objection raised against the perpetuity of the Sabbath on the ground of its being a merely ceremonial enactment, has not only been silenced, but refuted. It is a constituent part of the moral law: to call it a mere ceremony, is to sap all the foundations of faith and obedience. During the vigour of the ceremonial usages, it lifts up its head above them, and is enforced as of moral obligation to call it a mere ceremony, is to be ignorant of the very first facts of the case.

But we now go on to the prophets, the reformers of

1 Deut. v. 12-15.

the degenerate people, the preachers of the divine will, the assertors of the moral and eternal rule of duty, the bold proclaimers of the law of conscience and the bonds of a covenant relation with God, the seers and predictors of the gospel age. If they are found to urge the spiritual observance of the day of rest, as designed to form a part of the evangelical economy; and if they do this at the very time that they cast contempt on the mere outward ceremonies of the Jewish law-if they are found to denounce the divine indignation on no transgression, except idolatry, with so much vehemence and if they appear anxious to reform the manners of the people in this capital point more than in any other, then our argument gains strength at every step, and the divine institution will stand at the margin of the Christian dispensation, ready to enter it, in common with the other branches of essential religion.

Consider then, in the first place, the language of the BOOK OF PSALMS, and observe how little allusion is made to the ceremonial rites connected with the Sabbath, and how completely the stress is laid on the permanent and spiritual duties of that holy season. The Jewish Sabbath was indeed now in force. But it is upon the praises of God generally-his glory, his majesty, his compassion, his providence, his redemption, that the Psalmist dwells. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. . . . How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God....I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord.” 991

These are detached passages. In the 92nd Psalm we have an express hymn or song for the Sabbath-day, the topics of which are spiritual, and not ceremonial. First, the praises of God are enjoined, which are the proper

1 Psalms xxvii. lxxxiv. cxx.

business of the Sabbath; then the wonders of God in creation-the very reason for the institution; next, the dealings of the divine providence in the overthrow of the wicked; and lastly, the operations of grace in the fruitfulness, even to old age, of those who "are planted in the house of the Lord."4

Contrast with this the language of the 50th Psalm, in which a marked disregard is shown for mere ceremonies: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats, &c. ?" In this denunciation, you will observe that nothing is included which belongs to the essential matters extolled in the former Psalms.

In like manner, with what holy indignation does the prophet Isaiah REJECT THE MERE OUTWARD OBSERVANCES of the Jewish law: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth, they are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them." 5 In this vehement expostulation, the Sabbaths, including that of the weekly rest, when superstitiously relied on, are swept away with one common reprobation.

But with what earnestness, on the contrary, is THE OF THE SABBATH EXTOLLED in

DUE CELEBRATION

1 Psalm xcii. 1-3.

4 ver. 12-15.

2 ver. 4, 5.

3 ver. 6-11.

5 Isaiah i. 11-14.

the subsequent chapter!-It is placed on a level with the PLAINEST MORAL PRECEPTS-the not polluting of it is made the principal thing that pleases God-and

THE LARGEST PROMISES OF THE EVANGELICAL DIS

PENSATION are connected with the spiritual consecration of the holy day! "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Here the observation of the weekly day of rest is spoken of as a great part of holiness of life, and is placed among moral duties. The prophet proceeds, "Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and do the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls, a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." The prophet is here speaking of the gospel age, when the ceremonial law which prohibited eunuchs from coming into the congregation of the Lord should be abolished; yet the eunuchs, when thus at liberty from the law of ceremonies, are described as being still under an obligation to keep the Sabbath. Nay, they are directed to do this as one means of obtaining a share in the blessings of Messiah's kingdom. And so with regard to the Gentiles generally, here called strangers; "Also the sons of the stranger 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 my covenant;" where we notice again, that the sanctification of the Sabbath is put on the same footing with the laying hold of God's covenant, the serving the Lord, the loving the name of the Lord, the being his servants-and is indeed described as the main proof of all those parts of essential piety. The prophet then adds this evangelical promise, which by our Lord's own citation is predictive of the

gospel-state-" Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." It appears then that the Gentiles who should be called in the times of the gospel, would be under the same duty of keeping the Sabbath; and should thus, and thus only, be made "joyful in that house of prayer" which is destined" for all people." All this falls in exactly with another prediction of the same inspired writer, the language being still in the terms of the dispensation then prevailing. "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;" which has been constantly fulfilled, and is now fulfilling in the Christian church; since ALL FLESH have worshipped before the Lord on that weekly day of religious rest into which the Jewish new moons and sabbatical periods have subsided. Add to this the description which the same inspired author gives of the duties of the Sabbath. They have so clearly a moral obligation and universal force, and involve a tone of devotion so elevated, that we may truly say, If the sabbath be a ceremony, we have lost under the gospel one of the brightest glories of revelation. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, 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, &c."1

But we pass from this class of passages, to notice those DENUNCIATIONS AGAINST THE SIN OF VIOLATING THE SABBATH, which are only surpassed by the anger of the Almighty against idolatry itself, with which, indeed, it seems ever to have had a close affinity. We have already noticed the sentence executed early in the history of the sacred people on the presumptuous sabbath

Isaiah lviii. 10, 13.