no more than any of the primitive Fathers, confounds the two institutions, or puts the Lord's-day anywise on the same basis with the Sabbath-though he assigns several reasons why, as he says, "the holy doctors of the Church have decreed that all the glory of the Jewish Sabbath is transferred to it;" and adds, "Let us therefore keep the Lord's-day as the ancients were commanded to keep the Sabbath." Dr Cook, who evidently did not know that the authorship of the Homily is doubtful, makes the following remarks on the assage from which the foregoing extracts are taken :—

"Its evident that the object of this distinguished theologian was to rest the Lord's-day upon a positive divine appointment; he endeavours to show, that this may be deduced from the events wich Scripture records as having taken place upon it; but not trusting altogether to such an inference, he introduces the doctors of the Church as having decided, that the only change made by the Christian dispensation upon the Fourth Commandment was to transfer the rest which it enjoins from the seventh day of the week to the first. Assuming this, he immediately holds it forth, or considers it as a matter of divine appointment, that the Lord's-day was to be observed in all respects as the Jewish Sabbath had been. This is certainly proceeding much farther than the New Testament seems to warrant, or even, if we may judge from their works, than is warranted by the earliest writers of the Church: and it is difficult to conceive, that when the apostles rank the Sabbath as amongst the Jewish rites abolished by Christianity, they should not have given even the most distant intimation, that all which they meant by this assertion was, that, on account of the resurrection of Christ, God was to be worshipped on the first day of the week instead of the seventh." (General and Historical View of Christianity, ii. 301.)

It seems to me that the mention here made by Dr Cook of the Fourth Commandment as a law considered by the homilist to be binding on the Christian Church, has no sufficient warrant in the words of the homilist himself. This at least is certain, that neither Augustine in his undisputed writings, nor any earlier Father, has referred to the Fourth Commandment as a ground for the duty of observing the Lord's Day as a time for Christian worship.

Among his proofs for the divine authority of the Lord's Day, Willison includes "the judgments which often follow upon the violation thereof." Many instances are transferred from the pages of former writers, among others that notable one of the hunting nobleman who was punished by having a child with a dog's head. (See above, i. 149.) After this time the miracle disappears from the scene, though down to the present day many less marvellous instances of supposed judgments of the Almighty on Sabbath-breakers continue to be proclaimed. Willison refers to the great fire of London as such a judgment, since it broke forth on a Lord's-day morning; and he proceeds to say, that "likewise in Edinburgh, where Sabbath-breaking very much abounded (as VOL. II.

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appears by the acts of the Assembly made against that sin), the fairest and stateliest of its buildings in the Parliament Close and about it (to which scarce any in Britain were comparable), were on the 4th of February 1700 (being the Lord's Day), burnt down and laid in ashes and ruins in the space of a few hours, to the astonishment and terror of the sorrowful inhabitants; whereof I myself was an eye-witness: And the effects of that fire are visible to this day. Yea, so great was the terror and confusion of that Lord's Day, that the people of the city were in no case to attend any sermon or public worship upon it, though there was a great number of worthy ministers convened in the place (beside the reverend ministers of the city), ready to have prayed with or preached to the people on that sad occasion; for the General Assembly was sitting there at the time: But the dismal case of the city made this impracticable. However, the Lord himself, by that silent Sabbath, did loudly preach to all the inhabitants of the city, setting forth to them, in a most awakening manner, the great sin and danger of irreligious neglecting of God's worship upon the Lord's Day, and profaning it, by doing their own works, and finding their own pleasures." " (Pp. 92-93.)

226. WROUGHTON, CHARLES, M.A., Rector of Codford St Peter, Wilts.-The Duty of keeping holy the Christian Sabbath, opened, explained, and enforced : With an Epistle chiefly addressed to the Dissenters, to bring them back to the unity of the Church, by showing the unlawfulness of an unnecessary Separation. Lond. 1716. 12mo. Pp. 74.

227. BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC DE (born 1659; died 1738), and JAQUES LENFANT (born 1661; died 1728), French Protestant Divines, Chaplains to the King of Prussia.An Introduction to the Reading of the Holy Scriptures, translated from their French version of the New Testament, published at Amsterdam in 1718. Camb. 1779. (Reprinted in Bishop Watson's Theological Tracts, vol. iii. pp. 101-309.)

Bishop Watson justly characterises this as a work of extraor dinary merit," and adds that the authors "have left scarcely any topic untouched, on which the young student in divinity may be supposed to want information." They insist strongly on the fact, that, in order to a right understanding of the Scriptures, we must know and consider the time and country the writers lived in their language and character; the religion, manners, customs, and

usages of the people with whom they conversed; and many other particulars of the like description. In the case of the sacred books, as of the other remains of ancient writers, "the same rules of common sense must be observed; we must have recourse to study and meditation, we must call in the help of history, chronology, geography, and languages; in a word, of what the learned term criticism, or the art of judging of authors and their works, and of arriving at the true sense of them." Though all saving truths may be discovered without much study and application, yet, "when we come to a close and thorough examination of the holy scriptures, we shall, unless furnished with the knowledge of the particulars above mentioned, be continually liable to mistakes, imagine we understand what we have no notion of, or, at best, but a very imperfect one, and find ourselves puzzled and put to a stand at every turn. For want of these helps, the scriptures are frequently ill understood, and ill explained. Some put abstracted and metaphysical senses on passages that contain plain and simple truths, and expressed in common terms. Others having learnt a system of divinity, instead of explaining scripture by scripture, by considering the context and parallel places, wrest the word of God to their preconceived opinions. Others, again, having regard only to the modern languages, customs, and manners, cannot but mistake the meaning of the inspired writers, for want (if I may so say) of conveying themselves back to the time when, and country where, the sacred penmen wrote. Hence it comes to pass, that the Holy Scriptures, and the Christian religion, are so disfigured, as hardly now to be known in the schools and seminaries of learning; where the heads of young students are filled with a thousand chimerical notions, entirely unheard of by the evangelists. . . In reading the New Testament, we must have always in our minds, that the gospel was at first preached by the Jews, and in Judea, the evangelists and apostles having been all of that nation (excepting St Luke, who was born at Antioch in Syria, and concerning whom it is not well known whether he was a Jew, or a heathen, when he embraced the Christian religion. It very likely that he was a heathen by birth, but a Jewish proselyte, as we have observed in our preface on his gospel, and in St Paul's epistle to the Colossians). For this reason, we meet, in the New Testament, with frequent allusions to the Jewish customs and ceremonies. Their proverbs and moral sayings are often made use of; and for want of being acquainted with the style of the inspired writers, we are apt to be at a loss, and look for mysteries where there are none, by understanding literally what is only an allusion to some custom or saying of the Old Testament." (Pp. 108-111 of Watson's reprint.)

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In a chapter on "the Holy Things" of the Jews, an account is given of their festivals. Those which were set apart for the honour and service of God, "were attended with rejoicings, feastings, hymns, concerts of music, eucharistical sacrifices, and a joyful and innocent exemption from labour; upon which account they were

termed sabbaths." (P. 210.) The weekly Sabbath is discussed in pp. 226-233. Whether or not it was instituted at the creation, and appointed to be kept by all mankind for ever, is a question on which the authors abstain from dogmatizing; but they “set down the chief arguments that render the negative opinion the most probable," and give an answer to the objections that have been advanced against it. (P. 226.) The Decalogue, they think, was imposed on the Israelites only; and "the observation of the Sabbath being then a part of the divine worship, and a fence against idolatry, as God was therein acknowledged the creator of the world, it was very expedient that this law should be placed in the first table, which contained the duty of the Israelites towards God. It is, moreover, to be observed, that this commandment is the last in that table, because by observing it the children of Israel could therein discover the grounds of the three first. The second reason why the law concerning the Sabbath is placed in the decalogue is plainly this, because it is an abridgment not only of the moral, but also of the ceremonial law. According to Philo (De Decalogo), the Sabbath was a summary of the latter. The fourth commandment,' saith he, 'is only an abridgment of whatever is prescribed concerning the festivals, vows, sacrifices, and all religious worship.'" (P.231.) The writers agree with Spencer and his School, that "in the Scripture language (Exod. xxxi. 14; xxxv. 2; xx. 8) to profane the Sabbath is the same as to work upon it, as to sanctify it signifies to rest.” (Ibid.) Feastings and rejoicings were thought essential to the Sabbath, according to Philo, Josephus, and the Talmudists. (Philo, De Vita Mosis; Jos., Cont. Ap. 1. i.) These, however, do not seem to have been of divine institution. It is only said in the law, that the Sabbath was appointed as a day of respite, as a breathing-time, according to the Septuagint; or as a day of refreshment, according to the ancient Latin version. This custom is certainly of a very long standing, since it is taken notice of by a heathen author (Plutarch, Symposiac. 1. iv.), by way of reflection upon the Jews. There could be no manner of harm in it, if, satisfied with some few innocent diversions, and moderate mirth, they had not exceeded the bounds of temperance and sobriety, as they are charged by that author, as well as by St Augustine (Tract. 3, in Joan.), of having done. Jesus Christ made no scruple of being at a feast on the Sabbath-day. (Luke xiv. 1.) But such was the sensuality of that people, that they could not but soon make an ill use of this custom. Accordingly, we find some footsteps of it in the prophet Isaiah (Isa. lviii. 13, 14), where rewards are proposed to such as would not take an occasion from the Sabbath to indulge themselves in all manner of rioting and excess. It is certain that the Sabbath was a day of rejoicing, and that, as a token of it, they sounded the trumpet at several different hours, made great illuminations, and every one put on his best garments, and dressed over night a greater quantity of victuals than usual." (P. 233.)

The observance of Sunday they regard as "not of divine, but of human institution; if people do no work on Sundays, it is

because they may not be taken off from religious duties, but may have leisure to meditate on holy things, which is the end for which this day was appointed” by the primitive Church. (P.229.)

228. WOTTON, WILLIAM, D.D., Prebendary of Salisbury (born 1666; died 1726).-Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the traditions and usages of the Scribes and Pharisees in our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ's time. Lond. 1718. 2 vols. 8vo.

Vol. II. contains-" Shabbath, a title of the Misna concerning the Sabbath;" and "Eruvin, a title of the Misna concerning the mixtures practised by the Jews in Jesus Christ's time to strengthen the observation of the Sabbath." Both are given in Hebrew and in English, with notes.

The work is noticed in Le Clerc's Bibliothèque Choisie, vol. xiv., p. 188.

Wotton is one of the writers satirized by Swift in his Battle of the Books.

229. FIDDES, RICHARD, D.D., Rector of Halsham in Yorkshire (born 1671; died 1725).—A Body of Divinity. Lond. 1718-20. 2 vols. fol.

The Ten Commandments are considered in Vol. ii. As to the Sabbath, see Book II. ch. 7, and Book III. ch. 5.

230. A Companion for the Grand Festival of the Christian Church, or the Lord's Day. With Forms of Prayer and Praise for the Assistance of Private Devotion; and Directions for the more devout attendance on the Public Worship of God, according to the Liturgy of the Church of England. Being a Supplement to Mr Nelson's Companion for the Fasts and Festivals, &c. Lond. 1721. 8vo. Pp. 234.

231. MARCK (Lat. MARCKIUS), JOHN, Professor of Divinity at Leyden (born 1655; died 1731).-Compendium Theologiæ Christianæ Didactico-elenchthicum. Groningæ, 1686. 8vo. Pp. 1004.-Sylloge Dissertationum Philologico-theologicarum, ad selectos quosdam textus Novi Testamenti. (Exercit. xvi. ad Actor. cap. IV. ver. 21.) Rotter. 1721. 4to.