going, the disciples being hungry, and knowing what they were permitted by the law in such case to do,* plucked the ears of corn, and rubbing out the corn with their hands, began to eat it.

"But the Pharisees, who watched all occasions of reproaching them, observing that it was the Sabbath-day when they did this, said to Jesus: See you not how your disciples break the Sabbath? Why do you not reprove them ?'

"Jesus answered, saying: 'God never designed by any positive constitutions, such as the strict Judaical observation of the Sabbath, and the like, to put such difficulties upon men as to hinder them from doing things absolutely necessary. For have ye not read how David behaved himself in a like case?

"Do ye not remember, how when he was hungry in a journey, the priest (1 Sam. xxi. 6) gave him consecrated shew-bread out of the tabernacle, which in strictness none but the priests were allowed to eat; and both David and they that were with him ate of it? Now, if David be nowhere blamed for doing this, why do ye reproach my disciples for doing so small a thing as plucking and eating a few ears of corn on the Sabbath-day?

"Again, do you not remember how the priests are by the law appointed to do several sorts of works in the temple upon the Sabbath-day, and yet they are nowhere accused for breaking the Sabbath in so doing?

"You will say, perhaps, this was a case excepted, because in this case the priests were employed in the temple, and about the service of God, by God's own express command. Very true; and if so, then the business of men's salvation, which my disciples are going upon, and my presence, and my permission, will much more excuse them in this smaller instance.

"But, besides, since God everywhere declares that he prefers works of righteousness and charity before sacrifices and the exactest performance of all positive laws and outward ceremonies, ye have no reason to accuse my disciples for being so intent upon works of greater importance as not to have made provision for a strict observation of the Sabbath in its Pharisaical and utmost rigour.

"Especially it being evident of the Sabbath in particular, that having been instituted for the use and relief of man, and not to be a hindrance to him in the performance of moral duties, it may in cases of necessity be dispensed with by any man, and much more have its rigour relaxed by me.' "t

"When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand." (Deut. xxiii. 2.)

"Since on the one hand the phrase Son of Man' cannot without harshness be understood of any other than Christ, and since on the other hand some expositors, not without great arguments (and especially from the parallel place, Mark ii. 27), conceive it in this passage to mean only man in general, I have therefore endeavoured in the paraphrase to express both senses."

See above, vol. i. pp. 49, 57, 221; and vol. ii. p. 113.

236. MEYER, JOHN.-Tractatus de Temporibus et Festis Diebus Hebræorum, cum Animadversionibus in J. Spenceri libros de Legibus Hebræorum Ritualibus. Accedit volumen de Jejunio. Editio altera, innumeris accessionibus. Amst. 1724. 4to.

This work seems to have been originally published in the latter half of the seventeenth century. It is reprinted in the Thesaurus of Ugolinus, vol. i.*

237. LEWIS, THOMAS, A.M.-Origines Hebrææ; The Antiquities of the Hebrew Republic, in four Books. Designed as an Explanation of every Branch of the Levitical Law, and of all the Ceremonies and Usages of the Hebrews, both civil and sacred. Lond. 1724. 4 vols. 8vo. (Reprinted at Oxford, 1834, in 3 vols. 8vo.)

Among the subjects treated of in this elaborate compilation from the most eminent Jewish and Christian writers, the places of worship and the religious ceremonies of the Hebrews are of course included. To these is devoted the second volume of the original edition.

238. WRIGHT, SAMUEL, D.D., an eminent Dissenting Minister in London (born 1683; died 1746).—A Treatise on the Lord's Day. Lond. 1726. 12mo. (See No. 234.)

239. BATTELY, JOHN, D.D., Prebendary of Canterbury.—The Original Institution of the Sabbath. Lond. 1726. 8vo.

240. HILL, ROBERT, A.M., Rector of Stanhow in Norfolk.-A Discourse upon the Fourth Commandment, where particular notice is taken of Dr Heylin's chief cavils against the Sabbath, in his History of that Sacred

*Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum; complectens selectissima clarissimorum virorum opuscula, in quibus veterum Hebræorum mores, leges, instituta, ritus sacri et civiles illustrantur. Venet. 1744-69. 34 vols. folio.

The following pieces are in vol. xvii.:-(1.) Josaphta, seu additamenta ad codicem de Sabbatho, ab Ugolino ex Heb. Lat. reddita. (2.) Josaphta, seu additamenta ad codicem de commixtionibus Sabbaticis, ab Ugolino ex Heb. Lat. redd. (3.) J. G. Outhovii Dissertatio de Sabbatho secundoprimo. (4.) J. J. Syrbii Dissertatio de Sabbatho Gentili.

Rest of the Arguments of the famous Dr Wallis, in his "Defence," &c. relating to the Patriarchal State; with several other incidental matters. Lond. 1728. 8vo. Pp. 156.

Mr Hill writes with moderation and fairness, but in a more sketchy and fragmentary way than I was led to expect by his preface, where he proposes to supply the want indicated by his observation that Heylin's book "has passed in the world for near an hundred years, without any tolerable reply,” and that, being "drawn up with art and assurance enough to deceive those who are too easy that way, by this means it does mischief still." He contends mainly against the doctrine that the Sabbath began with Moses, and "the mean idea which Heylin gives both of the Fourth Commandment, and of the religious observation of the Christian Sabbath." At the same time, as we saw in vol. i. p. 179, he is by no means blind to the general merits of that writer's book.

46

In his 9th page there is the strange assertion that the Ten Commandments were placed by the English Reformers, "as the main summary of our duty, in the Church Catechism, which represents the observation of the Sabbath as implied in that love, worship, gratitude, invocation, and honour for him and his word, which are properly God's due." But how do we read in the Catechism itself? Q. What dost thou chiefly learn by these commandments? A. I learn two things; my duty towards God, and my duty towards my neighbour. Q. What is thy duty towards God? A. My duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship him, to give him thanks, to put my whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name and his word, and to serve him truly all the days of my life." Here is not only no "representation," but not even an insinuation, about the observance of the Sabbath! Had such observance been thought a Christian duty by the Reformers, would they have thus passed it over in silence?

Another surprising averment of Mr Hill occurs in his attempt to show that the copy of the Fourth Commandment in Exodus xx. is the one given at Sinai, while that in Deuteronomy v. contains " a new edition of the Sabbath, such as was particularly fitted for the Jewish state." (P. 94) Not only does he overlook the fact that Moses propounds the Decalogue in Deut. v. as precisely what was written on the tables of stone, but he proceeds to affirm that "that edition of the Sabbath was never put into the ark (the repository of the chief articles of the covenant), but only in the side of it, by the order of Moses, Deut. xxxi. 26." (P. 95.) But on looking at the verse referred to, it will be seen that what Moses ordered to be put in the side of the ark was not the tables of stone, but “the book of the law;" and on turning to Deut. v. 22, the verse immediately following the Ten Commandments, it will be observed that

...

he says to the Israelites,-" These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, and he added no more; and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." The breaking of the tables is afterwards mentioned; and in chapter x., ver. 1 and 2, he relates that the Lord afterwards said to him, "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood; and I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark." These new tables, Moses goes on to say, were written on accordingly; "and I turned myself," he adds, "and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and there they be, as the Lord commanded me."

Of the theory that the Sabbath-day was originally Sunday (see above, pp. 40, 86, 101, 168), he observes that "a certain learned author promises to demonstrate this, which was attempted some years ago;-of which I need say no more, but only that I shall be glad to see it effectually done.” (P. 135.)

The reason why Jesus is nowhere recorded to have taught obedience to the Fourth Commandment is thought by Hill to have been, that "the Jews (to whom he was sent, Matt. xv. 24) were as excessive about this commandment, as their obedience was lame and defective in other points." (P.127.) This opinion appears to me to be sound.

As an answerer of Heylin, Mr Hill falls greatly short of Cawdrey and Palmer (No. 122), with whose elaborate work he was probably unacquainted. From some of their conclusions he would have withheld his assent; for it does not appear that he regarded the Lord's-day as the Sabbath, in the same strict sense that the Puritans did.

His criticisms on Wallis's arguments against the patriarchal Sabbath are not such as to call for special notice; they will be found in pp. 41 et seq. One terse observation, in regard to the Fathers, deserves however to be quoted-" We reverence what's wise and good in them, but know no law of God or man which ties us up to their particular conceits." (P. 43.)

241. HALLET, JOSEPH, a Dissenting Minister at Exeter (born 1692; died 1744).—A Free and Impartial Study of the Holy Scriptures recommended; being Notes on some peculiar Texts, with Discourses and Observations. on various subjects. Lond. 1729-36. 3 vols. 8vo.

In vol. i. pp. 152–173 there is a discourse maintaining that the Ten Commandments given at Mount Sinai do not oblige Christians; and in vol. iii. pp. 48-222, Expositions of the Ten Commandments, of the Lord's-day, and of Moral and Positive Duties. Dr Wardlaw, who discusses some of Hallet's opinions about the Decalogue, calls

him "a very acute and intelligent writer." (Discourses on the Sabbath, pp. 35, 44, 49.)

242. BEDFORD, ARTHUR, M.A., Rector of Newton St Loe, in the county of Somerset (died 1745).-The Scripture Chronology demonstrated by Astronomical Calculations, and also by the year of Jubilee and the Sabbatical Year among the Jews; or, an Account of Time from the Creation of the World to the Destruction of Jerusalem, as it may be proved from the Writings of the Old and New Testament. Lond. 1730. Fol.

At the beginning of this treatise the primeval institution of the Sabbath is asserted; also the universal use of weeks by mankind from the beginning. The author thinks that the Sabbath-day was the first day of the week, till it was changed under Moses to the seventh.

243. CALMET, AUGUSTIN, a French Theologian, Abbot of Senones (born 1672; died 1757).-Dictionnaire Historique, Critique, Chronologique, Géographique, et Littéral de la Bible. Paris, 1730. 4 vols. folio. (Article SABBAT.)

A translation of this well-known, but now rather antiquated Dictionary, by John Colson and the Rev. Samuel D'Oyley, was published at London in 1732. The last English edition is that of Charles Taylor, who appended "Biblical Fragments," and made many other additions and alterations. It is in 5 vols. 4to, Lond. 1830; and the article SABBATH will be found in vol. ii. pp. 485491.

Calmet wrote also a Commentary on all the Books of the Old and New Testament; Paris, 1709-1716, 25 vols. 4to.

244. RIDGLEY, THOMAS, D.D., an eminent Independent minister in London (born about 1667; died 1734).— A Body of Divinity, wherein the doctrines of the Christian Religion are explained and defended; being the substance of several Lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism. Lond. 1731-33. 2 vols. fol.

The Sabbath is considered in Questions 115-121, vol. ii. pp. 266268. There is an edition of this book in 4 vols. 8vo, 1814; and another in 2 vols. royal 8vo, 1844.