This delightful paper, descriptive of Sir Roger de Coverley at church, begins as follows: "I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard as a citizen does upon the Change, the whole parish politics being generally discussed in that place either after sermon or before the bell rings."

220. NELSON, ROBERT, a pious English layman (born 1656; died 1715).-A Companion for the Festivals and Feasts of the Church of England; with Collects and Prayers for each Solemnity. 16th ed. Lond. 1736. 8vo. (Chap. I., On the Lord's Day.)

221. KING, PETER, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1669; died 1733).—An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, that flourished within the first three hundred years after Christ. Faithfully translated out of the extant writings of those ages. By an Impartial Hand. Lond. 1712.

8vo.

222, EDWARDS, JOHN, D.D., Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge (born 1637; died 1716).-Theologia Reformata; or, the Body and Substance of the Christian Religion, comprised in distinct discourses or treatises upon the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Lond. 1713. 2 vols. fol.

223. BURNET, GILBERT, D.D., Bishop of Salisbury

(born 1643; died 1715).-Some Sermons preached on several occasions; and an Essay towards a new Book of Homilies, in seven Sermons, prepared at the desire of Archbishop Tillotson and some other Bishops. Lond. 1713. 8vo. Pp. 349.

The fifth of the "seven sermons" is on the Fourth Command. ment. Burnet, in writing it, evidently had before him the Exposition of Bishop Hopkins; for he repeats verbatim that prelate's definition of moral and positive laws (see above, p. 82), and throughout the sermon closely follows his line of argument. He teaches that the Sabbath was instituted at the beginning, and that the consideration of God's example in resting on the seventh day "is universal, and relates to all mankind; it being a true rule, that all laws are to be extended as far as the reason of them goes." (P. 297.) In reference to the commandment as expressed by Moses in Deut. v. 12-15, he says: "There are indeed other words added in Deut. v. to those here read (i.e., in Exod. xx. 8-11); And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt,' &c." This, however, is a mis-statement of the fact-one which is very often, and perhaps inadvertently, made by writers on the Sabbath; for the latter words are not added to, but substituted for, those in Exod. xx. 11: and unless each of the two discrepant editions of the commandment may be accepted as an exact copy of the original precept inscribed on stone, surely we cannot with propriety found conclusions on both, as if both were undoubtedly authentic. Yet see how much is built by Mede on this double foundation!*

As for the change of the day from Saturday to Sunday, Bishop Burnet says that " as the apostles themselves met on the first day

* Above, vol. i. p. 154. The commandment in Exod. xx. is the copy always given by theologians as that which was written on stone; the other being left out of view, except when some argument is to be founded on the reason it assigns for the institution of the Sabbath. By one writer only, as far as I know, have both copies been asserted to be genuine. "If," says a reviewer of the Rev. Baden Powell's Connection of Natural and Divine Truth, " if, from its place in the Decalogue, the six days' creation is not entitled to be received as literal history, so neither is the deliverance from Egypt. Both are given as reasons for the observance of laws; both were uttered in the course of that short but most solemn address that ever came from heaven to earth; and both were recorded by the finger of God on the same table of stone, without the slightest hint that the one was not equally real with the other. And if such sanction shall not procure acceptance for the statement, no explicitness of language nor solemnity of asseveration can." (Presbyterian Review, vol. x. p. 732; Edin. 1838.) If both reasons were uttered by God, and inscribed by him on stone, why are not both to be found in each of the copies of the Commandment, recorded in Exod. xx. and Deut. v.? and why, notwithstanding the omission of one reason in each copy, are both copies represented in the Pentateuch as complete?

of the week, &c., so they called upon the first Christians to meet together on it" (p. 299); in support of which averment he cites nothing but Acts xx. 7, and 1 Cor. xvi. 2. He concludes by setting forth the manner in which the Lord's-day should be sanctified.

An improved edition of this sermon is reprinted in Dr Vicesimus Knox's collection of Family Lectures, p. 255.

Bishop Burnet treats briefly and similarly of the Fourth Commandment in his Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Art. vii., near the end.

224. SALLIER, CLAUDE, Professor of Hebrew in the Royal College of the French Academy.-De la Feste du Septième Jour. (Mémoires de l' Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, iv. 45-67.)

This paper on the festival of the seventh day, was read by the Abbé Sallier before the Royal Academy of Inscriptions, &c., on 9th August 1715. It is a scholar-like production, in which he maintains briefly that the Sabbath was instituted at Marah in the wilderness, where the Israelites had their fifth encampment (Exod. xv. 26); and, more fully, that the evidence commonly adduced from Jewish and Gentile writers to prove its observance by the whole ancient world (which evidence he exhibits in detail), is utterly insufficient for the purpose. On the latter subject, see above, i. 113, 116, 117, 148, 258; ii. 88, 89. He interprets Josephus and Philo precisely as I have done, and agrees with Wallis as to the design of Clemens Alexandrinus.

225. WILLISON, JOHN, one of the ministers of Dundee (born 1680; died 1750).-A Treatise concerning the Sanctifying of the Lord's Day, and particularly the right improvement of a Communion Sabbath: Wherein the morality of the Sabbath, and its strict observation under the New Testament Dispensation, is maintained against the adversaries thereof; and also many special Advices and Directions given, for promoting the great and comprehensive duties of Sabbath-sanctification and worthy communicating. Necessary for families. By a Minister of the Church of Scotland. Edin. 1716. 8vo. Pp. 456.

The popularity which this work soon acquired is still maintained among the stricter sort of Scottish Presbyterians. At least four editions were called for during the author's life, in the latest of which he reduced it to about half its original size by omitting

the "Help for the Right Improvement of Communion Sabbaths.” The book was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1840 (18mo, pp. 430). It is included in a collection of his Practical Works, published at Aberdeen in 1817; and which was again printed at Glasgow about twenty years ago, with a preliminary essay by Dr Hetherington on the life and times of the author.

The treatise is better written than most of the Scottish Puritan productions of its time. Though not beyond the range of Dr Owen's criticism above quoted (see p. 15), it is perhaps somewhat less exposed to the charge of overdoing than Mr Wells's Practical Sabbatarian.

Among Willison's reasons for writing it was a desire to counteract Limborch's chapter on the Sabbath (see above, p. 118), and also certain recent pamphlets by "one J. S., who calls himself a Presbyter of the Episcopal Church of Scotland," and who "pleads for Sabbath-day recreations both as lawful and dutiful after the public worship is over, providing (as he qualifies them) there be nothing immodest or indecent therein, nor too much time spent thereby though he neither tells how much time he allows for them, nor what are the immodest or indecent things which he disallows in them, but leaves every man to his own construction and choice therein," (P. 132, ed. 1840.) According to Dr Hetherington, this J. S. was a Mr Small, of whom he speaks with indignation and bitterness.

Willison's opinion of Sunday recreations is thus delivered :— "Recreations are twofold: 1. Some are natural and necessary, such as the refreshing our bodies with meat, drink, and sleep. These are recreations we cannot live or do business without upon any day, and therefore are both lawful and necessary upon the Sabbath, especially since we are thereby better disposed for performing the duties of the day. But,

"2. There are recreations which are voluntary and not necessary, freely chosen by people for their bodily pleasure and diversion; such as sports, pastimes, or games, whether more public or more private, such as playing at cards, dice, chess, tables, &c., or any sort of carnal music, such as whistling, singing, or playing on an instrument, or putting off the time with worldly converse, jesting, laughing, telling idle stories, walking and talking idly in the streets, or seeking our pleasure in the fields, though it be after public worship is over. Now, all such recreations being our own works, and for our own pleasure, and not subservient to the duties of God's worship, but hindrances thereto, are unlawful on the Sabbath-day, as being expressly contrary to that rest required in the Fourth Command, and to that plain word in Isa. lviii. 13, 14, 'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage

of Jacob,' &c.* Now, can there be any thing more directly levelled against carnal recreations, idle talking, walking, &c., on the Sabbath-day than this is? 'We must turn away our foot from doing our own pleasure on it,' i.e., by travelling or walking for pleasure or recreation; nay, we must neither do our own ways, speak our own words, nor find our own pleasures on this day. But if people will, notwithstanding hereof, allow themselves in idle diversions and loose recreations upon the Sabbath, I see not how they will free themselves of open rebellion against God: For God commands us to remember the Sabbath-day, not to delight ourselves by carnal recreations, but to keep it holy by Divine exercises; and to spend it otherwise is plainly to trample upon God's authority and declare war against Him." (Pp. 119–120.)

The words of Isaiah here founded on are, however, differently understood by some (see above, i. 171, 206); and besides, it has been questioned whether a prophetic admonition to the Jews ought to be regarded as a rule of duty for Gentile Christians, who, in this particular case, are evidently not entitled to look for the promised reward of being made "to ride upon the high places of the earth," and being "fed with the heritage of Jacob thy father." Willison holds that the Fourth Commandment orders nothing more special than the observance of one day in seven; "though yet I grant," he adds, "that the observation of the seventh, or last day of the week, for the Sabbath, is so enjoined by that command, that none could have altered it from that day to another but He that is Lord of the Sabbath." (P. 39.) Elsewhere he affirms that "all the primitive Fathers are very positive concerning the Divine authority of this change;" but the proof adduced for so strong an assertion is wonderfully small. It consists of two scraps, one of which is the notoriously spurious passage in an epistle of Ignatius, where that apostolic Father is made to say, "Let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lord's-day, which is consecrated to our Lord's resurrection, and is the queen and chief of all days." (See above, i. 120, 259.) This passage, even were it genuine, would be palpably insufficient to warrant the conclusion drawn from it. The second is an extract from the homily De Tempore, which Willison quotes as Augustine's, but which is universally admitted by scholars to be of doubtful, and probably of later authorship. (See above, i. 123, 257; ii. 154.) But supposing Augustine to have really written that "the Apostles and apostolic men † appointed the Lord's-day to be kept with religious solemnity, because on it our Saviour rose from the dead," can a Bishop who died in the year 430 be fairly styled a "primitive Father? Is an original assertion by so late a writer, as to the doings of the Apostles, worthy of credit? And, after all, is there any real identity between the appointment of the observance of the Lord's-day, and the change of the Sabbath-day from Saturday to Sunday? The truth is, that the author of the homily,

* Willison, for some reason, omits "thy father" after "Jacob." Willison omits the apostolic men.